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Action began all across the Citadel, and especially in the main chamber. Both sides began pairing up with each other to fight, and turmoil had broken out. Yet for one Scizor, he remained out of the action for the moment, as he had a more particular target in mind to fight. He spotted this other Scizor from among the crowd of Gold Tribe members and their allies, and gave a small smirk. Then, without a word, he proceeded up the same stairs Rey went through minutes earlier to the upper floors, and he expected the other to follow.

Jirmonji was still partially in shock from finding his idol to be a traitor, and a monster. What malarkey is this? I trusted that man more than I trusted myself! How could I be so foolish... The last question was more of a statement. The room was filled with mixed reactions, from Bloodthirster's cry that it mattered not, to Blackguard having a conversation with the fiend. But one thing reached the Swift's ears in particular.

"Keh... well if all hope is crushed... then what else do we have to lose? May as well go out fighting!"

He would have made a good brother. Jirmonji smiled, completely ignoring the nearing beast. I have my own battle to fight. He turned Zane and nodded respectfully. "Sir...I'm not going to help you guys...I have my own battle to fight." He gestured to the pair climbing the stairs. "I-It's personal...I hope you understand." He turned to face the receding pair. "But...you must promise me something." He gritted his teeth and clenched his claws. "End this bloody Hell of a mess for me." He began to walk slowly, but paused, one last time, turning back to his brothers and sisters in arms, smirking. "I won't be coming back...so...LONG LIVE THE GOLD TRIBE!" He gave one last cry and quickly caught up to Sentry. "Hello there...Drake."

Sentry waited for the Swift on the second level, as Rey continued onward to the higher levels. "...Jirmonji." Sentry answered back. He looked around the second floor of the Citadel, which was one of the floors where many of the Gold Tribe stayed either as temporary or permanent living quarters. In fact, this is the same floor where both Sentry and the Swift once lived, long ago. "Ironic, to end it where everything began," He looked from around the room to the Swift. "Well, this has been long overdue. Prepare yourself," He said, as he got into a stance, ready to make use of his legendary speed, which has bestowed upon him the title of 'fastest Pokemon alive'.

Jirmonji couldn't help but smile as he scanned their surroundings. It truly was nostalgic, being in the room that he and his opponent shared. "It truly is ironic..." He sighed and clenched his fist. He knew he wasn't walking away from this fight, but if any of his hope was left, he would end both of their lives. "We end this here, and now, Drake. I'm tired of prolonging it." He braced himself, ready for Hell itself. Jirmonji was ready to die. "To the death!" He cried out and launched himself forward, putting a massive amount of force behind a Metal Claw.

"Always the dramatic," Sentry said with a sigh, before he instantly went into another gear. He charged forward just as the Swift did, and struck at his fellow Scizor's claw with his own Metal Claw. The two clashed in the center of the room that left an echo and a force of power from beneath their hit. Sentry tried to force his claw down upon the Swift with all of his might, just as the Swift did the same. In the end, their first clash ended with a bit of a back-and-forth tug, with none giving way. A stalemate.

Sentry quickly abandoned the attack by pushing off from his opponent, before quickly revving up again and charging with his near-incomprehensible speed. He was a blur, and aimed right for the Swift again with a powerful X-Scissor.

Jirmonji didn't have a clue what to think. In all honesty, he was trying not to think. He knew that instinct would take charge here. Here, fighting the toughest opponent he's ever faced. He looked back to find Sentry flying at him full speed, and he did the one thing he could think of: The Swift back-flipped in an attempt to dodge the red bullet and did another one, launching a Bullet Punch right above his opponent.

Sentry smirked, impressed that his opponent managed to evade his attack, the strike hitting all but air as it barely grazed by the Swift's evading backflip. Wisely, the Swift went for a Bullet Punch, a fast move to counter against a fast Pokemon, but Sentry had dealt with others trying to match his speed before. The strike came as fast as bullets, almost a blur to anyone else that saw, but Sentry began swiftly moving to his left and right to avoid each one that came after him. He used his reflexes to see the current of the punches as they came, then exerted his body just enough to have them barely miss right or left.

However, during the flurry of punches, he noticed in surprise as it appeared one came faster than the others, and managed to catch him off guard. Knowing he would be unable to dodge, Sentry stuck up a claw, and the Bullet Punch collided onto his red exterior. "Impressive. You've gotten faster," Sentry said to the Swift, before pushing off his claw off of his opponents, and quickly going with another attack while he was off guard, hitting him with a Metal Claw as fast as lightning.

The Swift was a bit surprised to find that he hit Sentry, but he was glad that he did. It was always welcoming to hit an enemy. The next move, however, took him by surprise, and he was sent flying across the room. He managed to use his wings to pull himself up enough to land safely. "Thank you. I learned from the best." With that he smirked and charged forward again, swinging a powerful Metal Claw with each hand.

"You didn't learn enough!" He quickly replied, stepping back a few steps and launching a Razor Wind right at the incoming Scizor. He would strike him with the fast-moving air currents like knives before he would even be able to reach the Sentinel, and when he does, Sentry would have already moved away again.

The Swift didn't know how to react. Surely there was something he could do! Think Jirmonji! Think! The razor-sharp winds were getting closer and closer. Ah...To hell with it. He launched a volley of Silver Wind, but instead of letting them collide with the opposing blasts, he let them wrap around his body, making him a large silver bullet for a moment. He could feel himself going through the Razor Wind, and it hurt, but it did a great deal less damage than it normally would have. Without losing any momentum, he plowed forward with his two Metal Claws ready.

It appeared from Sentry's view, that the Swift had initiated a Silver Wind. Typical. He thought in his mind. The Swift had tried to counter with that before back outside in their first battle on the plains. This time wouldn't have done any better. Or so he thought. He was surprised as the Swift moved the Silver Wind around his own body instead, sacrificing it with bruises and cuts to be able to pass through and try to deal a blow to Sentry. Caught off guard, the two Metal Claws collided with his chest, and forced him back towards a pillar, where he crashed into it and it collapsed.

"Ugh...not bad." Sentry said with a grunt. He pushed himself off of the downed pillar, and brushed off any pieces of rubble across his body. "Seems I underestimated you. Not something I do too often." He made sure no more rubble remained on his body, then looked up at the Swift again. "Looks like I'll have to go serious, then."

"So I know you've seen other Sentinels tap into their chaos forms. But...how about I show you it's full potential?"

Suddenly, a gust of wind began to pick up into the second level of the Citadel. Sentry's eyes began to morph from its original dark yellow to a much darker shade by the second. Slowly, they faded from anything remotely close to the bright color and to the black one associated with the ability he activated. Then, black smoke began to fill the room, pouring in from the other levels of the Citadel and toward the Scizor. The black smoke encircled above the Scizor, then suddenly came down around him and surrounded his body, making it impossible for the Swift to be able to see what happened on the inside. Strange and incoherent noises began to come from inside this dark vortex of clouds where Sentry once stood. The marble and rock floors of the Citadel began to shake, and some portions even cracked the closer they were to the dark clouds. Then, the smoke began to expand from around the smaller space that occupied the body of the unseen Scizor, and filled the entire room. It almost became a fog around the second floor of the Citadel, with the main portion of this dark fog still surrounding the body of Sentinel.

Sentry looked down below at his new form, flexing his arms and examining the sharpness of his new, black claws. He smirked slightly, satisfied with his new form. Then, looking back up at the Swift, he bent his knee, and propelled himself forward. He was almost as fast as a bullet now, gliding across the Citadel and almost never needing to touch the ground. He felt his first attack ought to leave the biggest impression of just how outmatched his opponent was now, so he began forming another Razor Wind. However, instead of using it as an attack, he caused the rapid-moving wind to propel himself forward, combining his body with the attack, and launching at the opponent Scizor with an X-Scissor.

The Swift could do nothing but leap out of the way. He felt Sentry blur by him, his speed now far beyond naturally possible. He stood up and grimaced at the sight of his opponent's fearsome new form. "You...You're fast. Really fast." He smirked, sudden memories entering his mind. "Drake...I have to stop you here. You can't be allowed to live. Valkaria cannot be free until you and all of your kind are dead." He clenched his claws in rage. "COMMON!" He charged his brother with renewed energy, launching his own X-Scissor.

"Show me better than you can tell me," He responded, sidestepping the Swift's X-Scissor, relying on his superior speed and reflexes to win him this bout. He then fired up his arms at the side of the Swift's body, and released a Flash Cannon directly at him. The powerful attack came out of his arms, and appeared as a darker, grey light than the bright silvery one which became accustomed to seeing.

The blast came quickly, and hurt a good deal more than it normally did. The Swift was sent hurtling across the chamber again. He failed to hover this time and slammed into the ground. He stood up shakily, spitting up blood as he did so. "I think I will." He rushed Sentry and began to fire off countless volleys of Bullet Punches, moving as fast as he could, crying out with each punch. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH!"

Sentry stepped back, almost casual in appearance as he narrowly avoided each punch left and right. It was as if he was reading the mind of his opponent, and able to predict the exact movement that he was going to do. What really was happening was that for Sentry, everything was moving just a little bit slower. Each pace, every punch thrown, Ever word said, every attack unleashed. He heightened his reflexes to the point that when he watched a pin fall onto the floor, it would almost appear to be a feather. The problem that the Swift now faced, or more specifically the advantage Sentry now had was simply this: In his new form, with his new power, he didn't have to dodge.

As one of the Swift's claws came forward at Sentry from the Bullet Punches, Sentry made an attempt to grab hold of it with his newfound power, hoping to then get into position to deliver a deadly blow of his own, an Aerial Ace straight onto the shoulder and clavicle of his opponent, hoping to cut through across his torso and slash across it.

Sentry grabbed Jirmonji's claw with ease, a normally impossible task. It seemed as if Sentry made the world...slower...No! That's ridiculous! He's too powerful! A grimace that spoke of certain doom came over the Swift's face. I cannot die yet! Not while he still lives! He activated his wings and began to hover in an attempt remove all possible blind spots other than his legs. "Take THIS!" He brought down a Metal Claw with hopes of deflecting the next blow.

The Swift got some air, hovering a bit as he brought down his claw to clash with the Aerial Ace. Both attacks collided with one another for a moment, each holding each other off. Sentry looked into the eyes of the swift above as the Swift looked down below. He was in a lower position, but by the calm demeanor that was displayed by Sentry as they clashed, both knew who was really coming out on top.

The clash began to look like it favored Sentry, with his own attack beginning to try and force Swift backwards. Then, all at once in an exertion of force, Sentry pushed the younger Scizor back, both slashing at him and trying to force him across the room. Sentry didn't wait to see if his attack was successful doing what he planned. He stuck out both hands in front of him, and fired off another dark-colored Flash Cannon across the room at the Swift.

Jirmonji stepped back from the clash and bent over backwards and felt Drake's claw soar over him.. Damn that was close! He flipped backwards a couple times and stood up straight again to see a dark-colored ball of energy flying at him. "Not this time!" He leaped forwards and began to corkscrew in midair, soaring around the ball. "Take this!" He swung another Metal Claw as hard as he could.

Sentry gave no recognition that he was phased by his attack not hitting his mark, but when Swift began charging in with another Metal Claw, he stepped back. As the Metal Claw came at him, he quickly dashed to the side, so that he was on the left side of the incoming Swift. He then reached for the Swift's wrist, hoping to grab hold of him, use his own momentum against him and twirl him around, tossing him directly up into the air and hopefully through the ceiling to the next floor. To make sure this was achieve, Sentry also unleashed a Razor Wind as he tried to toss the Swift, making him feel damage while also causing his impact to be faster and stronger.

The Swift noticed three things in a split second: One, Sentry managed to dodge his attack. Two, he had a hold of him, and had flung him at the ceiling. Three, there was a Razor Wind chasing him. He had to react fast. Here we go! He spun in midair and slammed Metal Claw into the ceiling with just enough force to break through to the other side. The force carried him through enough for him to activate his wings, and he flew even higher. Jirmonji knew he had no hope to block the approaching winds, so he darted out of the way. The Razor Wind flew into the ceiling above.

The dark Scizor bent his knees, keeping an eye on his target as he broke through the next level. With all of his hind leg strength, he bounced off the ground, and propelled himself up. One jump up and he was already almost on the top of the ceiling. Using his wings, he began carrying himself through the hole he helped created, and gently touched down on the ground on the next level.

He dusted himself off, some loose rubble and dirt having collected itself across his chest after coming through the hole, then eyed back at his opponent, who clearly wasn't in as good condition as he was. He was thinking of saying just how pointless it all was for the Swift, but judging by the look in his eyes, he already knew that. Besides, it wasn't Sentry's style to monologue or gloat. Instead, he decided to not give the Swift any break between attacks, and charged at him again in a rapid motion, striking at him with an Aerial Ace.

The Swift could barely dodge Sentry's attack. He rolled out of the way, but this movement was slower and clumsier than average. He stood up and panted. He was now tired, and his seemingly limitless stamina was depleting faster than he could run. Jirmonji began to back up as quickly as he could until he was on the balcony. He looked over the edge to see the Gold Tribe attacking the fearsome reincarnate of Sovereign. They will win. They have to. He turned back to Sentry and got in a defensive stance. I have to as well.

Sentry stared down at the Swift as he successfully avoided his attack, only narrowly, and then looked out at the balcony, probably checking the progress of the others. He could see that he was worn. He was only narrowly avoiding attacks, no longer trying to defend himself, but instead just avoiding. He was stalling. "...you're faltering." Sentry declared to the Swift. "I think this has gone on long enough." He lifted up both of his arms, gathering energy at the tips of his claws. White, brilliant energy gathered at the tips, before seeming to decay and turn a rotten, purplish-black. The energy continued to gather and gather until the blast was almost as large as his body. He then released the Hyper Beam from his hands and directed it at the Swift, believing this attack would be enough to set him up for the finishing blow.

The Swift watched the monstrous black wave coming at him with dread in his heart. "NO!" He saw countless faces in his head: Zane, the turncoat Sablye, the Blissey Healer...If he let them down now, he would be a failure. "I WON'T FAIL!" He threw himself out of the way of the beam. "I WILL STOP YOU HERE!" He stood up shakily. There was no way he was going to lose to the likes of Sentry. Their was no way Jirmonji was giving up. "I WON'T FALTER!"

Sentry widened his eyes just a bit, surprised that the Swift was able to dodge his last attack, an attack he was sure would have finished him if he would have hit. "...I admire you tenacity..." He said to him, walking up close beside him and admiring the view on the outside balcony. Below, the city was quiet, save for the destruction being caused in the fight against the Behemoth which poured onto the streets next to the Citadel, and the action still going on downstairs. He looked from the view on the outside back towards the Swift. "...but nothing else." He leaned back against the pole next to the balcony. "You see, there's something you all still haven't realized it seems. Ever since the war started over two years ago, you have already faltered. The Gold Tribe defended well, with our armies clashing with the best of them. But slowly...they began to die off. One by one, a Gold Tribe member died here and there, and your numbers slowly decreased.

There were thousands of you, then hundreds, then dozens. And now? Now, look at you." He pushed himself off the poll, looking square in the eyes of the younger Scizor. "You say you won't falter. You say you won't fail. You say you'll stop us here. But the fact you don't realize is that you've already faltered. You've already failed. And we...we've already won."

Jirmonji sighed as he listened to Sentry's speech. He's right, partially. We've lost at least one sibling in every battle, no matter what happened. He looked away from the older Scizor. "You're right about us losing soldiers..." He looked back with a smirk. "But you must understand....Drake, that we are fighting a war of attrition. A man for a man." He had an idea. One last hope. "And in the end we have more men." An idea formed in his head. All of Albia rested on his shoulders at this moment. "And in the end, we won't be there." He acted upon his instincts and grabbed Sentry with all of his strength, refusing to let go. "And in the end, WE'VE WON!" Jirmonji gave one final roar of effort, and tossed himself off of the balcony with Sentry in his arms.

Sentry wasn't one to make big speeches. Even now, his whole monologue, although true, was simply a stalling method. He was talking to give his body some time to recharge after using the powerful Hyper Beam. However, whether Jirmonji had caught on or not was irrelevant. All of a sudden, he forcefully grabbed onto him, and didn't let go. "What are you doing?!" Sentry yelled, as they two began to proceed off the balcony. Sentry managed to make enough room with one of his claws, and forced it straight into the stomach of the Swift, hoping the grave injury would be enough to make him loosen his grip and let go just as they tumbled off the balcony.

Jirmonji gasped as the claw penetrated his stomach. He felt weak immediately. I...I can't give up! The fate of Valkaria rests in my hands! He forced himself to tighten his grip even further. He looked to his fellow Scizor and narrowed his eyes. "I-I'm t-t-t-taking us b-b-both down!" He knew there was no way for him to win, but he had to make sure Sentry wouldn't win either. "We're going down together Drake!" The Swift couldn't let go. He wouldn't let go.

"Why won't you just DIE already!" Sentry screamed, his eyes going completely black and dark, chaotic energy poured from his body as an attempt to destroy the Swift and climb free from his grip. The energy struck all across the Swift's body, hoping to end him quickly as the pair tangled through the air down to the city below.

"I CAN'T DIE!" Jirmonji screamed as he felt every blow strike across his body. "You can't kill me! I HAVE HOPE!" His strength was not of his own: It was the hope that he carried with him. He gripped even harder, living only through sheer tenacity. "Sentry...We're not going to live! Neither of us!" A single tear was falling from his eyes.

The struggling continued through the air as Sentry did everything in his power to escape the grasp, and Swift did everything in his power to prevent. Chaotic energy rippled through the two of them, slashing away at skin and bone, harming them both in hopes of accomplishing something. It scorched their entire body, blasted away at everything they could. Still the two tumbled in the air, going inexorably down to the ground below, until the screams and struggles were gone, and a large thud pierced the area, signifying the end.

In the last few moments before the pair of falling Scizor's reunited with the ground, Jirmonji was smiling. He was finally going to overcome his fear. Death was finally upon him. He looked Sentry in the eyes until the very end. The ground was rapidly approaching. Arceus...I've fufilled my destiny. I'm about to meet my fate. The ground was mere yards underneath them. He whispered quietly, "I love you, Drake." Not a second later he felt his head make contact with the stone beneath. Jirmonji could feel the last bit of consciousness slipping away. He looked into Drake's eyes, and noticed the darkness fading away from them. "Goodbye..." A smile crossed his lips, and a tear fell down his face, "Brother."

__________________

A Legend once told me that roleplaying is about bringing people together and celebrating creative vision.
Paired with the ArtsyInfinite and the Spectacular Shak

Behemoth seemed to pay little mind as the first Focus Blast approached him. If it did any damage, it did not show on him. However, it did prompt him to take notice as the second one came in for a follow up. The beast lowered it's head, and caught the ball between it's teeth. It's jaw squeezed down, warping the shape of the energy, until it exploded in his mouth.

Despite his clear lack of defined eyes, it seemed quite apparent that he was now glaring right at Wildfire. A violet glow could be seen amassing in his maw, energy swirling around a singularity which climaxed into a powerful Hyper Beam towards the insignifigant fool who had just attacked him.

Seeing that his sister was in danger of being fired upon by the giant form of the Tyranitar, Sword and Shield quickly ran as if he were as light and swift as a Rattata and threw his exponential weight at the monster with a Wild Charge, hoping to throw off the direction of the Hyper Beam. Dryad, who was close by the fighters, proceeded toward their location as well, as he figured they would need some help against him...or it.

The Behemoth's feet skid slightly against the floor, only giving a few inches on his ground. The beast seemed to feel no pain. The trajectory of his Hyper Beam averted just barely out of the path of his target. Taking no time to rest, he bit down into the Snorlax, unable to recognize that it's body was tapped of energy from it's previous attack. The Crunch was far less powerful than it normally would have been, lacking the driving force it could normally provide. However, with the strength it could muster, it stepped around Sword & Shield, and jerked it's neck to throw him through the wall.

Sword and Shield was a bit surprised that the Behemoth was able to respond as quickly as he did after firing off such a powerful Hyper Beam. He hoped to be able to step back enough to avoid any retaliation, but his fang quickly bit down into the skin of the bubbly Snorlax, which made a large growl of pain escape his mouth. Then, as if he was as light as a pebble, the mighty Tyranitar tossed the large Snorlax away, having him gain a sizeable amount of air. He flew straight through the side of the main chamber, creating a large hole in it and continued to roll through until he was at the outside of the building, one the streets of Silver City. Dryad quickly went over to check on her brother, who had taken quite a dive outside.

"Are you alright, brother?" She asked worriedly over the huge body of the Snorlax. He grunted in pain, but slowly began getting up as he eyed the large hole he had just came through, and the large Pokemon who was soon to step through it.

"Grr...fine. Be careful of this one. He's...strong. We might need some more help against him." He responded. Just as he said it, Ragnaros stepped next to him heavily, with his eyes fixed on Behemoth.

"What a pitiful creature," Ragnaros declared, measuring their strength and his. "You will need my help to take him down."

The Behemoth stepped out from the gaping hole in the wall, and met eyes with Ragnaros. In life, Sovereign had seen the Bloodthirster as a rival of sorts. Such concepts meant little to the beast he now was, but some remnant of those memories remained still. A challenge. A true fight. A dragon. The Behemoth wanted to kill him for reasons it could not understand. Something beyond it's basic nature.

The Behemoth let out another roar, as it's tentacles stabbed the ground, and pulled 4 large boulders from bellow. He hurled the Rock Tomb towards Ragnaros with what would have been burning hatred, if the being was still capable of emotion. The Salamence leapt up the air, his body flaming with dragonfire; he crushed against the rocks head on, roaring through the cloud of of dust and fire. Most of his fire had gone gone out with the impact, but the real impact would come right after - Ragnaros crushed recklessly against Behemoth with all his might, the flames of the Dragon Rush licking the ground of the Citadel and his foe.

While Behemoth was busy attacking Ragnaros, Dryad decided to step to the side with Sword and Shield. She powered up her own attack, timing up with Ragnaros so that he would have more to deal with, and fire an Energy Ball at the Tyranitar. At the same time, Sword and Shield decided to impact with Ragnaros at the same time, trying to hit him with a Smack Down.

As each blow struck the Behemoth, a shockwave of sand burst from his body to push it's opponents away, whipping into the air to create a Sandstorm.

A hideous groan slipped from it's mouth, as a dark aura engulfed the monster. Disgusting cracks and sloshing could be heard, giving way to the shifting of the Behemoth's body. It's bones stretched and it's flesh crawled as it grew to nearly twice the size it began. Cursing itself with less speed, the Behemoth had become more powerful.

The Behemoth set itself on all fours, once again pulling rocks from the earth. Howerver, instead of throwing them, it spun the tentacles on it's back, swinging the rocks all around at it's opponents.

Ragnaros flapped his wings about him, his eyes searching for the shadow inside the sand that was the Tyranitar. He dropped his jaws to unleash a Hydro Pump, attempting to shoot down the other shadows, the rocks coming towards him; then, he directed the stream of water to the Behemoth.

The Snorlax and Lilligant covered their eyes, holding their arms in front of them as a way to continue seeing through the Sandstorm Behemoth was creating. What made it worse was from within the sandstorm, rocks began to be tossed at them, with no coherent direction in mind. Dryad, the smaller and faster Pokemon, was able to keep away from the shooting rocks for a while. She tried to make her way deeper into the Sandstorm, seeing Ragnaros fly in and spot their opponent and shoot a Hydro Pump at him. Although she couldn't see him, see fired a Leaf Storm into the sandstorm in the same direction, hoping her attack would hit.

Sword and Shield was less lucky, taking direct blows to the body and head from the flying rocks. He tried to hold his hands up to defend himself, but was getting lost inside the fast-forming sandstorm.

The Behemoth's armor was clearly taking wear from the water washing over it, yet the monster showed no signs of pain still. He barely even noticed the leaves striking him. Through the storm of it's own creation, it could see perfectly. The weakest link now was the Snorlax, clearly struggling in the storm. With Ragnaros in the sky, Behemoth charged at Sword & Shield, slower than it had been before, teeth bared to Crunch into him once again, this time at full force.

It didn't seem like Dryad's attack had affected the beast in the slightest, which made her despair even more. Then, he charged toward another direction in the Sandstorm, and Dryad could hear the roar of pain from her Snorlax brother, and knew he was struck by the beast. She ran over to help, seeing the large Behemoth crunch his teeth into the Snorlax, and tried to get him off with a flurry of Energy Balls to his back.

Sword and Shield roared with pain from the teeth sinking into his blubbery skin and drawing blood. He tried hitting him off of his body, but the beast would not relent.

Ragnaros roared, letting himself into the dragonfire of Dragon Rush once again. The attack had started to take a visible toll on his body, but it was urgent that he used it; he charged at Behemoth again, having no regard for his own safety. It was an all out battle, this one.

Ragnaros' attack shook the Behemoth loose from it's hold on the Snorlax, and as the dragonfire engulfed it, its armored chest stattered, falling to pieces on the ground. The fire burned at it's skin, inducing pain for the first time in the entire fight.

...a sudden beat of the heart...

The Behemoth's body spasmed in pain at the feel if it's blood rushing through it's veins. As it looked up, the eye sockets which had been empty before, now bore a pair of bright, glowing, violet eyes. The ground shook violently, and the sky darkened. It was happening again, except this time Sovereign was not there to control it. The tentacles on his back merged together, and stretched thin, forming a pair of great, dragon wings.

Behemoth's Outrage took hold full force, as it swung it's tail around into the Lilligant. A massive roar emitted from it's maw, as the wings swayed back and forth.

"UUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

Ragnaros roared his share back at the monstrosity, flapping his wings to keep a distance from the deadly Outrage. He shot another Hydro Pump at it, hoping the water would cool it down... but he could feel his insides burning as well. Channeling so much power in such a sort while had gotten him exhausted.

Dryad was hit full force by the tail of the large Tyranitar, the small Pokemon being flung through the air and crashing into a nearby home, going straight through that building and into another. Sword and Shield decided to assist in Ragnaros' Hydro Pump with a Surf of his own. He lifted a single arm into the air, the other one having been bitten deep at the shoulder blade by Behemoth, and sending the wave of water crashing onto the beast.

Daricka had followed the fight outside, but had been forced to stay out of the way as she attempted to put together some sort of an attack with the energy she had left. So far, her feeble attempts at creating a Focus Blast had ended with the gathered energy dissipating before it even reached reached an inch in diameter, and any flames she called to life within her hands died quickly away. Finally, her frustration with her current weakness reaching its limits, she came to the conclusion that she would have to risk using the Life Flames once more if she planned to be of any actual use. Determination coursing through her, she summoned up the last reserves of strength left deep within her, and flames once again wrapped around her. Vitality was rapidly achieved as the flames fed her the energy they had stolen from her very core.

This time when she concentrated a ball of energy between her palms, a full fledged Focus Blast blossomed into life. Trading a longer endurance for extra power, Daricka this time kept her flames from infecting the glowing blue orb. Narrowing her eyes as she turned to look into the sandstorm she had until now remained on the outskirts of, she caught flickers of movement within. Then, a roar, and another right after. The second, her ears recognized as Bloodthirster's, but the first no doubt belonged to the Behemoth. Taking a deep breath, she charged into the swirling sand, her Focus Blast preceding her in the direction the Behemoth's roar had come from.

Through the barrage of water, Behemoth pointed itself towards the most powerful source: the Hydro Pump. The water around it's head began to boil around it's mouth, creating a pocket of steam that bubbled up just behind him in the path of the stream. The violet glow from it's mouth pierced through the veil of water, errupting into a solid beam straight through to the source of the water!

Ragnaros saw the beam piercing through the stream of water, but he was too late in his attempt to avoid it. It struck the side of his wing and he roared in anguish, shot down on the ground; the wound on his side, under his wing was colored purlple. He would have stayed there, but his anger had overwhelmed his wits. Failure wasn't an option here... it was victory or death. It took him two seconds to prepare himself, then he spread his wings again and took flight. He circled above the raging Behemoth, looking for a way to apprehend him.

Behemoth seemed to target only the most powerful source coming at him, spliting the Hydro Pump and striking at Ragnaros. The other attacks, the Surf and the Focus Blast had unclear effects on the Tyranitar, but it appeared to Sword and Shield that they would have hit. Ragnaros was now encircling Behemoth, with Dryad already rising up after recovering from the hit by his tail, and Sword and Shield too trying to figure out a way to stop the beast. He held his shoulder as blood continued to flow from the injury.

"How do we stop something like this?" Sword and Shield question, both to himself and the others. Dryad shook her head, before responding.

"If you give me a bit of time, I can try preparing for something." She replied, taking in a deep breath to start preparing. It looked like she was gathering energy, possibly for a Hyper Beam. But by the looks of it, it was far more energy than she had ever allowed to pass through her body before. Quite an undertaking. Yet Sword and Shield wondered if he was in any condition to be able to last that long, even if it might not be too long to begin with. He sighed deeply, then roared, beating his chest with his fists, shrugging off the pain in his shoulders.

His Belly Drum quickly started to take effect on his body, feeling the positive and negative effects of it almost simultaneously. "Well, you only live once. You get your time!" He yelled, rushing forward at the Behemoth as the Belly Drum effects now took full effect. "FOR THE GOLD TRIBE!" He roared, attempting to smash into the Tyranitar with a Return.

The Snorlax slammed into the Behemoth, dropping him to one knee. The attack was powerful, but still not enough. The Behemoth swung it's arm, grabbing Sword & Shield by the head, and slamming it forcefully into the ground! A dull growl rumbled from the beast's mouth as it drove the Snorlax into the dirt.

Sword and Shield collided to the ground with a large thud, shaking the nearby houses by his immense weight. He coughed up blood from his mouth, as the Behemoth stood above. Dryad continued to power up her Hyper Beam, taking in as much energy as her body could muster, and then some. It was progress, but it wasn't enough. She needed more time. She hoped the others would give it to her.

At that moment, Ragnaros dove downwards to Behemoth, his claws blazing with dragonfire, hoping to busy him with a Dragon Claw.

The flaming claws dug into Behemoth, the dragonfire reacting with it's dragon blood. It felt like it's blood was boiling from the inside. It shook violently, trying to knock Ragnaros away, but with no success. It's wings flapped about, trying to get it away, but every move burned.

Dryad powered her final attack with everything she could. As she saw the beam of energy begin forming in front of her and growing exponentially, she felt that with every additional piece of energy escaping her body, she was growing weaker and weaker. She knew she had long exhausted the cliff of acceptable energy to launch into an attack before it became dangerous. Now, everything else she gave threatened her life, and the longer she kept it up, the worse it was becoming for her. Her body tense and then appeared to withdraw, as if the plants around her began to wrinkle and shrink. Her eyesight began to fade occasionally and blur, and she felt her legs shake below her, barely able to support herself up.

The precious moments bought for her finally brought her to that moment, and after being satisfied with the amount of energy she gathered, she decided it was time. The Hyper Beam was a solid white color, large than her own body at this point. Yet she managed to give everything she had in it. So much so, that once she released the gargantuan attack towards the monster they fought, she collapsed on the floor. The Hyper Beam, which took the form more of a singular, large ball than the traditional wave of energy, launched itself at Behemoth.

The Behemoth turned in time to see the Hyper Beam on approach. It flung it's arm up, catching the ball by it's hand! The ball burned against his flesh, pealing it apart so that the bones became visible in places. But instead of impacting, it seemed to soak into the Behemoth's body, gradually shrinking until nothing could be seen.

The Behemoth stood still. The light from it's eyes had vanished, once again leaving empty holes. A sudden jerk of the neck! A glimmer of the light flashed in it's eyes, building up until it seemed to be flooding out. The white light seemed to pull the area around it's eyes apart, creating cracks where the light could escape further. The cracks spread across it's entire body, through it's arms, down it's legs, everywhere...

The light disappeared abruptly, leaving the Behemoth's body seeming even more empty than before. It's body was frozen in struggle. Slowly, the tips of it's fingers began to melt away. The effect spread across it, gradually melting faster and faster. The grim face of the Behemoth was distorted and hideous as the sludge dripped to the ground that surrounded the citidel.

The remnants of the Behemoth's arms fell off the amorphous blob that stood before them, as it reached the climax of decay. And as the sludge began to evaporate, a shape could be seen within. The lying corpse of Sovereign Chronos left behind. A body that finally knew peace.

Vera watched as the monster and several Gold Tribe fought, moving to the outdoors. She wanted to join the fight against Sovereign's husk, but felt now was an appropriate time to deal with the nagging issue of the Toxicroak.

Varren rubbed his head a moment after Paradox ‘ported away and the room exploded into action. This wasn’t what he had expected. All was supposed to be well with him once he got his own body. What was with this headache?

The Toxicroak’s eyes looked over those on the Gold Tribe’s side, looking for anyone who wasn’t really fighting yet. There was the Sableye who had switched sides earlier that day. “Hehehe…” Varren stepped forward, walking until he got relatively near Snype. “Hey, traitor. Though, technically that applies to both of us. Gonna go down fighting?” The claw on each of Varren’s hands began glowing purple as he readied a Poison Jab.

Vera greabbed Varren by the arm, stopping his attack from landing. "I know you probably don't recognize me like this, but surely my voice must ring a bell. That is, assuming you are who I think you are." She could see it. That same, stupid smile on his face. That same horrid lack of compassion.

Snype looked up at Varren with a smirk. Funny enough, a familiar face stepped in to take the hit for him. The voice did ring a bell... "Kehe, ah right. I was supposed to kill you back in Cape City if I recall. Good thing I kept you alive eh? Kehe." Snype said as he used his shadow to strike at Varren with Shadow Sneak. Even if all hope was lost, at least he could say he put up a fight!

Varren's grin never faded as he was stopped. "Another traitor. This'll be fun." He rolled with the force of the Shadow Sneak's blow, jerking his arm out of Vera's grip as the Toxicroak rolled some distance away before coming to his feet again. "Yes, that's right, Varren's here, Vera!" With that, he formed six shadow tentacles that burrowed into the ground long enough to pick up jagged pieces of rock. They shot forward to begin whipping at Vera and Snype.

Vera Slashed through as many of the tentacles as she could, the bombardment of rock making it exceedingly difficult. "I sure hope you live up to your old title of Sentinel," she said to Snype. Holding out her right arm while she fought off the assault with her left, she powered up and fired a Focus Blast in the direction of Varren's new host.

Snype slashed through the tentacles however he could along with Vera. What was with all the Poison Pokemon lately? He could rarely make use of that little Toxic ability of his... he'd just have to deal with the next best thing. "Kehe, Hey I plan to. Managment isn't too great over there anyways." Snype said. He held his claws out toward Varren and used Will-O-Wisp to weaken him and make their lives easier.

This would certainly take his mind off why he felt like he'd been torn away from something. Varren crouched as the vocal sack below his chin swelled up. As the Focus Blast came, he opened his mouth and released a Venoshock that collided with it, spattering into the immediate vicinity. When the Will-o-Wisp hit, Varren winced but chuckled. "Tick tock, time's a-wasting." He jumped to one side, mouth swelling again before firing a Sludge Bomb at Vera and Snype.

As the ball of sludge made it's approach, Vera responded by setting her leg ablaze, and running straight into it's line of fire. "Blaze..." She jumped forward, bouncing off her hands as she flipped her body over, bringing her leg down on the incoming bomb. "KICK!" She felt the sting of the poison as she made contact, the fire not enough to completely dissipate the toxins. "Now, Snype! Hit 'im!"

Snype smirked and quickly stepped in for his own attack. This guy was a heavy hitter... so his signiture move would work perfectly here! "Gotcha!" He responded. He quickly ran toward Varren and attacked with Foul Play! Snype began to take form of a purplish aura that was sparking with power. Keeping up his momentum, he used Varren's attack power against him and struck right through him!

The Dark shield that Varren called up only lessened the blow. The Toxicroak was knocked back by Snype's Foul Play, which he turned into another roll and a hop to avoid lying on the ground. Looking up, Varren's eye twitched as multiple tendrils of shadow appeared around Vera and Snype and tried to wrap up the two Pokemon.

Varren wiped his mouth with one hand and asked, "Nothing to say, either of you?" Turning his attention to the Blaziken, he added, "Surely you're wondering how I got here." It was as if Varren had forgotten about Snype and his own burn.

Before she could react, the tendril wrapped itself around Vera's body, restricting her movement. It brought back bad memories of no more than a week earlier when she had been in a similar situation, only with Sovereign as Varren's host. "It doesn't matter how you got there. What matters is I'm going to take you out!" The small spaces between the tendrils began to smoke heavily as Vera's eyes lit up with an intense fire. "BLAST BURN!!!"

The ensuing fire ripped apart her bindings, and dropped her to her knees. The attack was very taxing, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could maintain this form. "I think I can finish him, Snype, but you gotta distract him long enough for me to get my energy back."

Snype ducked and covered from the Blast Burn so that he didn't accidently get incenerated by it. As Powerful as it was though, Vera was going to be out of commision for a little while. Time to be a little nuiscense! "Gotcha! Just close your eyes!" He said. Snype followed on in after the attack and used Flash to blind Varren for a bit. Afterwards, he pounced onto Varrens head and clung onto it like a little bug! She did say distract him, and this was as distracting as he was going to get.

"Hehehe... acting very similar to Hanso. Less talk, more fight." Varren threw up a shield of shadows that lessened the damage, but the Blast Burn ripped through it and threw the Toxicroak back several feet. Landing on his feet, Varren swelled up and fired a Venoshock in Vera's direction just before the air Flashed. Squinting his eyes came too late, but Varren's grin didn't leave as he felt something latch onto his head.

"You know, I think that's what's wrong." Varren reached up with one hand and grabbed what felt like a head. "First time in a long time that I'm alone in here...and I feel...incomplete. Like I need to be in someone else's head after all." He tried to pull Snype off with one hand while the claw on his other hand began swirling with green energy. Whether Snype came off or not, Varren threw his Drain Punch at the Sableye.

Vera tood deep breathed as she began to focus. She could feel her stamina coming back to her. Streams of air began to flow off the tips of her body behind her. Just a little bit longer...

Snype wasn't phased by the Drain Punch. Ghost type after all! He should have known better! He was still grabbed and left dangling there in Varren's grip. He didn't fight back though. He was the distraction after all! Just a little longer and Vera could do whatever it was she was doing. Varren would probobly try something stronger next time but Snype would just have to take it! He prepared Detect just incase...

After staring at Snype's face for a few seconds, Varren drew his arm back and threw the Sableye in Vera's direction. "Cummon!" he shouted, his eyes gleaming even crazier than normal. "Hit me with your best shot!" Even though he still saw spots in front of his eyes from the Flash, the Toxicroak fired another Sludge Bomb at the pair. Varren followed it up by forming several tendrils of shadow that began whipping at Vera and Snype. "I want the fight of my life!"

Snype was thrown right onto Vera and landed right on her. Though once he saw the Sludge Bomb heading right toward them, Snype quickly jumped up to take the hit for Vera, but that didn't stop the attack that would soon follow after that. He was quickly sent down to the ground beside Vera, trying his best to swat away the tendrills attacking him. Snype hadn't had a chance for a breather in awhile...

"Gyah... Hey! You wanna finish up whatever it is your doing over there chicken legs?" Snype said to Vera.

Vera opened her eyes in response, the intensity of the air streams increasing exponentially. "My pleasure." Vera ran straight for the sludge bomb, In yet another display of athleticism, she bounded into the air, over the ball! "BRAVE BIRD!!!' Vera flew straight down towards Varren's new host, ready to slash him to pieces.

Snype kneeled down a bit as Vera used Brave Bird on Varren. That was an attack that Snype didn't want to get in the way of at the risk of totally messing it all up.

The moment he saw Vera jump up over the Sludge Bomb, Varren raised his claws as they glowed purple. Pointing them up at her, he didn't know if the Blaziken would fall on his Poison Jabs or not. Varren's grin was as wide as it could be. "Will you come with me, or not?"

Vera spun through the air, bringing her leg around to kick Varren's claws out of the way before her own claws sliced through him. "You died a long time ago, Varren. It's time for you to go."

Varren did nothing more to stop the Blaziken. In a moment, he was lying on the ground, eyes staring at something beyond the ceiling while the slashes in his torso oozed blood. "Hehe...hehehe...he...finally...free at last..." The Toxicroak grew silent, his body gradually fading back to its original colors. Varren, or Darren Vistral, had finally moved on.

Blackguard rolled his neck, hearing several cracks. "Boy this body is still a bit stiff..." He muttered, still holding a ball of aura in his hand. This ball began to expand into a much wider, taller shape. It grew and grew in size, enveloping Blackguard and becoming bigger than any Pokemon until it was the shape of a transparent aura-made Golurk, with Blackguard visible in its center, controlling it. Blackguard cracked his Golurk knuckles, the pops and snaps echoing through the room.

"Are we finally done talking? Good. Now let's see here..."

Blackguard scanned the crowd of physically and emotionally scarred Gold Tribesmen, looking for a worthy opponent. The best choice was the most obvious: their leader, Zane Tyrael. It seemed only fitting seeing as his previous host Paladin had been such good friends with him. As a result, Blackguard knew him quite well too... and once the Bisharp found out who he really was, the battle ought to get really interesting.

"Hey you," Blackguard boomed, pointing a large finger at Zane. "You're mine," he grinned, and as soon as he did so, his aura arm outstretched itself to an unnatural length and its hand balled into a fist, sending a punch straight for the Bisharp.

The former Sentinel Snype was right. This war would bring the end of the Gold Tribe, but Zane would give them an end worth remembering. He would fight to his last breath. The Swift gave his own farewells as he went after Sentry. He seemed so sure of himself, that he knew he wouldn't be coming back. Zane, even though he said that he would fight until the end as well, never believed with certainty that he would die. Nothing is certain, but yet, the Swift felt sure of it, and left with no regrets. Zane wondered if he could ever do that, to march willingly to his death.

Before that, he had to fight. It seemed now, he would have to do it against a Lucario. Still suffering from previous injuries and the Hypnosis Paradox used, Zane wasn't quite quick enough to dodge the punch which stretched from an absurd length away, hitting the side of Zane's body and propelling him back. He stayed down for a moment, enough to compose himself and prepare his body to take more hits, which inevitably would happen. Luckily, he would get a bit bigger rest as he noticed Guardia enter the mix with the Lucario soon after, striking at the back of the Pokemon with a Slash.

She had stopped crying now, though her eyes were a bit puffy from doing so before. Now, all she had in her eyes was indignation and determination. Zane couldn't possibly know what was going through her mind at this very moment, but he did know that even though she had fought beside him in multiple battles over the past few months, he had never seen her more courageous than she looked now. He quickly rose himself soon after, powering himself up with a Swords Dance in preparation of the coming battle, which would likely be a tough one.

Guardia looked over at Zane, who joined beside her now. "It's you and me now, Vigil," She said, looking back at the Lucario to see his current condition.

Blackguard was about to advance in and shower Zane with more punches when he felt something hit his aura form. Turning around, he found a Zangoose, Guardia from what he could remember, slashing at his back. If he recalled correctly, this Zangoose was the daughter of Rey, the Wielder's current host. How fitting that he should be the one to kill her...

Zane soon stood beside Guardia, both of them with determined expressions. However, underneath the determination, Blackguard knew there could only be hopelessness. By now, they must have realized they were going to lose. Their end was nigh, and Blackguard would be the reaper who brought it.

Blackguard did not hesitate any longer. He started by slamming one of his giant arms into the ground, causing it to punch straight through. Then, he used the same outstretched punch attack, aiming at the space in between the two and intending to seperate them by forcing them to jump in opposite directions. When that had been done, an aura fist suddenly appeared from below Guardia, apparently outstretched from the arm that currently sat lodged into the ground. It struck at her, before retreating into the ground and back to Blackguard.

He then shrunk his aura vessel in size, lowering it to fit just around his natural body. The Lucario advanced towards Zane, attacking with a couple of Aura Spheres to throw him off guard, while he launched two more Aura Spheres behind him at Guardia, also using those as propulsion so he was immediately in front of Zane. Without hesitation he grabbed Zane's head with one hand, and bended his Aura to create two more hands to grab the Bisharp's arms, immobilizing him. Pointing his last free hand at the Bisharp's face and readying an Aura Sphere, he grinned maliciously. "You may not remember me, Tyrael, but I certainly remember you..." he chuckled softly. "Remember your friend Paladin? The darkness in him? Yeah. That's me. The name's BLACKGUARD!"

The two Gold Tribesmen were seperated by the attack launched by Blackguard, each one going in opposite directions to avoid the attack. Guardia prepared to charge in to attack, but was suddenly struck by a blow coming from underground, and she discovered it to be the strange powered fist of the Lucario. She was scraped on the side of her ribs, the damage impacted and resonating through his side, but thankfully she avoided to much strenuous damage. However, this did set up a case for a disadvantage in this fight for her if she had to try to reach her opponent from a distance.

Up ahead, she saw as Zane began to be surrounded and attacked by the Aural energy, and also towards her. Zane avoided the first set relatively, same as Guardia, but was unable to do anything when the Lucario used it to close the distance and trap him. The Bisharp struggled to get free, while the opponent, who revealed himself as Blackguard, spoke about Paladin. A wide-eyed and somewhat bewildered Zane began putting two and two together, and understood that the opponent in front of him must have been the one to cause Paladin's strange pigmentation and personality change. "But then...why are you a Lucario? And where is Paladin?" He wondered genuinely, but also used this time to try to stall Blackguard for a moment while he noticed Guardia preparing a Swords Dance from behind them. He would give her a moment longer to prepare while he discovered what he needed to about his friend.

Blackguard's Aura Sphere was above average size as it just kept growing faster and faster, but the Lucario knew that Zane was only trying to buy his friend Guardia time. Looking back, he saw her powering up with a Swords Dance. Without a word, he launched his Aura Sphere at an immobilized Zane, looking back at Guardia with a malicious grin as he did so. However, when he turned back to Zane, he sent all of the aura energy surrounding his own body after the Bisharp, encasing him in a sphere of energy. Then, he lifted the sphere with Zane inside and launched it straight at Guardia behind him.

"Oh, it's quite a long story, but you won't be seeing Paladin anymore, that much is certain," Blackguard chuckled. He caused the sphere to dissipate, and brought the aura energy back to himself, encasing his body in it once again, and looked on at the two Goldies.

Zane felt distressed when Blackguard seemed to figure out what he was doing, but even more so when he learned that Paladin was gone.. Guardia went wide-eyed as she saw her friend launched right at her. She rolled out of the way, and saw as Zane crashed past her and into the wall. She looked back to see if he was okay, and as he seemed to slowly get up, she looked back at Blackguard. "You bastard," She muttered mostly to herself.

Feeling the Swords Dance fully power her up now, she charged forward again, relying on her superior speed and strength to close the distance while avoiding any surprises Blackguard would have waiting. She maneuvered a lot to him, and when she did, she brought both of her claws down with a dual Crush Claw, putting all her might behind it.

Behind meanwhile, as Zane slowly got up, he noticed Guardia already going in for another attack, and from afar, decided to help out by trying to shoot Blackguard with a Thunder Wave just as she was hitting.

Blackguard quickly generated a shield of aura with some of his extra energy, defending himself from Guardia's powerful Crush Claw attack. The power of the attack caught him slightly off guard causing him to step back, but other than that the attack was held at bay. As the Thunder Wave came straight for him, though, Blackguard diverted the rest of his aura energy at it. He managed to encase it in aura while still keeping the Crush Claw at bay, and redirected the attack at Guardia using his aura. Then, two Aura Spheres formed from the shield Blackguard was using to fend off Guardia, one aimed for Zane and the other for the Zangoose.

"It sucks you'll never get to say goodbye to daddy," Blackguard mocked.

Guardia cursed under her breath at the sight of her ultimately failing attack, along with Zane's unsuccessful attempt to penetrate Blackguard's defenses. Quickly, he retaliated with a set of Aura Spheres, and this time, Zane wasn't quite quick enough to get away. Getting hit directly in the chest, Zane was propelled by the force of the energy, and sent back to the side of the building, with rubble and rock falling on top of him. He could feel the new stinging pain in his chest, as well as the wounds he received earlier slowly making their way to the surface.

Then, a quick set of images flickered across his vision, as if his eyes were playing tricks on him, followed by a pain in his head, something he had never quite grown accustomed to. It kept him down for a moment longer, only to catch Guardia narrowly avoiding the Aura Sphere intent for her, or rather, blocking whatever would have reached her with her signature Thunder defense. Whether that stemmed Blackguard to mock her afterward or not, he wasn't sure. But he knew Guardia. She was someone who would often get easily angered, and this time didn't seem to be an exception. While Zane slowly recovered to get back up, Lyn angrily ran in for another Crush Claw, making it a point to have this next set be as painful to Blackguard as possible. At the last moment, she decided to power up the attack even more with a running Swords Dance, something she had mastered rather efficiently to do to reduce time in between attacks and running. Her runs became almost intertwined with the Swords Dance itself, and just as it ended and she was coming upon Blackguard, she released her Crush Claw.

Blackguard quickly generated a curved shield using his aura, and as the Crush Claw came at him he put the shield in front of him, causing the Crush Claw to collide with it and slide to the right, away from the Lucario. However, he checked the shield, and noticed a small crack in it.

"You're pretty damn powerful, you know that?" Blackguard mused, looking at Guardia with malice in his eyes. Grinning, he launching four Aura Spheres at her at the same time in an effort to distract her, and used the opportunity to power up with some Swords Dances of his own, all the while keeping a watchful eye on a recovering Zane. Not even checking to see Guardia's condition after the Spheres, he lunged at her with a powerful Close Combat attack.

"Heh...it runs in the family!" Guardia shouted back just as Blackguard launched another set of Aura Spheres. Guardia did her best to avoid them left and right. She managed to avoid the first one completely, with the second and third ones only barely grazing her, causing a stinging sensation. Unfortunately, that slowed her down enough for the last one, which knocked her straight in the stomach and off her feet. The attack hurt, but what was worse for her was being put in a position where she couldn't immediately protect herself against his next attack as she got up. A barrage of fists came at her, and with nowhere to run, Guardia put her paws up to her face to try and protect her vital points. Each blow seemed to damage her a bit more than the last. She tried standing her ground, but the Close Combat was highly effective against her, so all she could do was try to last it out.

Zane tried at this moment to help her friend out. Blackguard was watching him, so he couldn't really go in for a surprise attack, nor did he try. He leaped into the air in an attempt to gain his attention, and struck down on him with a slice of his arm and air in the form of an Aerial Ace. This hopefully would get a bit of the pressure off of Guardia and back onto Zane.

As Blackguard saw Zane coming at him with an Aerial Ace, he retreated. He slid backwards from where he had stood, leaving a devastated Guardia standing there as Zane lunged straight at her. Blackguard then generated a cage using his aura, and trapped Guardia and hopefully Zane in it.

Guardia felt the sores and pains around her body from the beating she took, only to be stopped by Zane's intervention. However, she saw that Zane now approached towards her, and Blackguard began summoning some sort of entrapment meant for both of them. She knew she would not be able to avoid it, but she fired a Thunder right in front of Zane, hitting him only a bit but effectively stopping him from getting trapped along with her in the aura.

Zane was struck on the front with parts of the jolts from above, which did enough to stop him from sharing the same fate as Guardia who was now trapped in the aura. Trying to respond before Blackguard would do something to her, he ran forward at the Lucario and tried bashing into him with an Iron Head.

All of Blackguard's aura was currently focused on Guardia's cage, so the Lucario would have to beat Zane with his power alone, which was fearsome in itself. Blackguard swiftly sidestepped the Iron Head attack, though his side was grazed a bit, and quickly retaliated with a Cross Chop right at Zane's still-charging head. Not waiting to see if the attack had hit or not, the Blackguard jumped backwards a few paces to be at a safe distant from his Bisharp opponent, and focussed on Guardia once more. Suddenly, some of the aura in the cage began forming into a deadly rain of Aura Sphere directed straight at the Zangoose in the confined space.

Guardia began to grit her teeth from the pain the Aura cage was now giving her with the addition of the Aura Sphere Blackguard infused inside. She tried to beat on the cage and claw her way out, but her arms were also damaged as she hit the aura. On the outside, Zane doubled back at the hit delivered on his head after the Lucario managed to avoid most of the Iron Head. Luckily, the Cross Chop was delivered while the effects of his Iron Head was still present, making the damage to his head lessen. Still, from this powerful opponent, it hurt like hell.

Zane saw the cage and the damage being done to his friend on the inside. "Stop!" He yelled, while charging toward it to try to disarm it. He tried to fire a Thunder Wave on Blackguard so he would stay clear while Zane fired a Night Slash on the Aura to help Guardia tear it apart.

Blackguard chuckled as he avoided the Thunder Wave by dodging. With one arm he increased the rapid fire of Aura Spheres beating down on Guardia inside the cage, while with the other he extended the cage. Since Zane was at such a close distance, the cage expanded and opened momentarily around Zane, closing again behind him and trapping him inside it. He, too, was now victim to the shower of Spheres, and as that happened, Blackguard began to shrink the cage slowly, causing the two Gold Tribe members to become more and more claustrophobic.

"Stop?" Blackguard muttered to himself, an amused grin on his face. "Stop?!" He said louder. "Why in the name of Arceus would I stop? The fun's just beginning!"

Zane could do nothing as he too was brought into the Aura cage. Standing beside his friend, they took an enormous punishment from the spheres of energy that rained on them, at the same time they continued to condense the cage more and more. They were not only finding it hard to dodge, but now also hard to move. But they also realized that they had to find a way out, or they would be done for.

The two exchanged a look while inside. Guardia had spent a bit more time being showered by the attacks, so she looked even worse off than Zane. Yet she still held a look that almost spoke to Zane that she wouldn't give up. He knew she wasn't going to run, but he also knew she wasn't going to just roll over and let herself die. She turned and spoke to Zane. "Sorry for this ahead of time!" She closed her eyes, gathering energy to the point that veins were visibly showing on her forehead. Then, from open holes across the destroyed Citadel, lightning and sparks of electricity started to pour in. All at once, a massive wave of Thunder was cast into the room, more powerful than any Guardia had released before, exerting herself to the very limit. The Thunder, however, was cast not on the enemy Lucario, but rather on the Aura cage itself. It clashed right with the sphere, tearing right through and striking at the pair inside, damaging them as well.

Zane held on, despite the jolts of electricity flowing through him. He waited for the right moment, when a hole big enough to climb through the cage was formed, and together, the pair shot out. "Now!" He yelled, as they rolled out of the opening of the cage. Without missing a beat and despite their numerous injuries, the two attacked the Lucario from either side with renewed vigor, and a little help from electricity still flowing in their bodies, which they decided to use to help in their next attacks. Guardia banked left and struck at Blackguard with an electrical Close Combat. Zane moved right and upwards to hitting the Lucario with a deadly Guillotine.

Blackguard's grin instantly disappeared when he noticed the Thunder attack. The blow to the cage caused the entire Citadel to quiver, and as soon as Guardia and Zane had escaped the construct, it dissipated behind them and reappeared as a small orb of aura in the palm of Blackguard's hand. When the attacks shot out from either side, there wasn't much the Lucario could do but block the incoming attacks with his aura, which he expanded into an orb that surrounded his body. Putting his full concentration into keeping the shield intact, he took the hits as they came.

The first attack was a flurry of punches, each one electrically charged and sending a small jolt through the shield each time it hit. From the other side, the Guillotine attack struck hard, causing Blackguard to take a step back. Once the main impact of the attacks had struck on the shield, generating a few minor cracks, Blackguard diverted some of the energy to creating an Aura Sphere, and launched it at a still-punching Guardia in hopes of distracting her, while he used the remainder of his energy to expand the shield, slowly pushing Zane's Guillotine further and further away from himself.

Guardia was struck directly in the chest with the Aura Sphere. She doubled over on the ground, dropping to one knee and cough up some blood, but she pushed herself up again, and charged right back in to strike at Blackguard again with another flurry of punches under Close Combat. Zane saw as he was forced back by the expanding shield of aura, but didn't let up at all. He continued to force down the Guillotine, despite the Lucario continuing to push it back more and more.

"Eventually, one of us will have to give!" Zane shouted to the Lucario. "This is for Paladin!"

"Paladin?" Blackguard asked, amused. As he forced the shield against Zane, he saw Guardia coming at him with another Close Combat. She was a resilient one, indeed, Blackguard thought. The Aura Spheres should have destroyed her by now considering their supposed super effectivity. Still, such power could be expected from the would-be leader of the Gold Tribe.

Blackguard quickly diverted some of his aural energy over to Guardia, giving Zane the edge with the Guillotine and creating several cracks in the shield. The remaining aural energy was twisted into the shape of a lasso, which launched straight at Guardia, wrapping itself around her neck. In one fluid motion, Blackguard pulled at the lasso, forcing Guardia to stand in the space between the Lucario and the Bisharp. Then, he let the shield go, allowing it to disspiate and causing a surprised Zane to stumble forward with his Guillotine, straight at Guardia.

As more aural energy was forced over to the pounding Guardia, she felt herself be forced back more, and he health slowly weaken and weaken. The additional energy suddenly sprung at her and wrapped around her neck in a rope. Guardia began clinging to her neck to try to gasp for air, and Blackguard wasted no time in moving her to the center, just as Zane was penetrating further and further into the shield. All at once, he let the shield go, and Zane wasn't quick enough to fully push off. He managed to stop his attack going toward her at the last second, but he lunged into her all the same. He forced his Guillotine upwards, instead aiming at the aural rope to which her neck was attached to. He managed to cut through it, but also fell forward on her and the pair tumbled onto the ground and rolled a few feet away.

They panted together from their numerous injuries and exhaustion. Guardia coughed after being choked, and Zane groaned from his bruises. They looked back at Blackguard in front of them, and knew they a victory against him wouldn't come easy.

A sudden noise penetrated the skull of Blackguard. It started off as a low hum. The hum grew louder, into a ringing sound, before it turned into the familiar voice of Rey inside his head. "Come upstairs with Paradox for a moment. I require your presence."

Blackguard blinked a few times and did nothing, much to Zane and Guardia's confusion, with a questioning look on his face. "What?" Blackguard wondered for a moment, but in the end he could not disobey his master. Turning his back on the two Gold Tribe members, he grinned. "Looks like I'll have to kill you another time," he said. "Paradox, time to go. The Dark Lord has summoned us." He brought all of his aura back to himself and compressed it to the size of a small ball, ready to strike at any who would stand in his way as he walked calmly towards the door leading to the floor above.

Snype kept his place on the ground. The poor ghost was exsausted. He had taken alot of heavy hits since he had gotten here but he didn't want to give up yet! He had other plans... that Golduck for one. He had to be stopped. Snype was immune to his mind control tricks so he had a good chance of standing up to him. And he couldn't afford to just sit down and rest. He could really go for a berry right now. He held onto his arm and tried to get up on his feet but struggled. Paradox and Blackguard were headed upstairs. Blackguard was a threat but he had his eyes out for Paradox. That whole psychic link thing wasn't going to fly with Snype.

"Gah... gotta stop Paradox..." Snype muttered, placing a hand on the wall. He coughed violently for a second and felt weak. That sludge bomb that he took the hit for... Was Snype Poisoned? "Damnit. That's what I get for trying to play the hero. Kehe..." Snype said, giving off another cough.

Paradox looked about and smiled at the destruction all around them. It was nice... very nice in fact. With this amount of chaos the crystal would break rather easily, however as he kept looking on he couldn't help but notice something... off. These Goldies weren't dying. It was like... they were refusing to simply lie down and die, either that or they just refused to be corrupted by their superior techniques.

He had to cross his arms in anger and his brow scowled at the scene before him. Most of the opponent's were taken so for the moment he leaned back and just watched to see if anyone would need his help. He did spy Varren off to the side getting a massive butt kicking, but he just smirked and closed his eyes as he felt Varren fall out. Yeah, they had to ditch him sometime. He was a loose cannon and he was now gone.

As he made his way out though he heard that same voice in his head and he let out a very annoyed groan. He rolled his eyes and wasted no time in porting up to where he could feel Rey's energy. As soon as he reappeared he turned a jabbed a finger out at Rey.

"What the f**k was that!? We destroyed the f***ing gold crystal! We smashed it! How the hell can they still be protected!?" He began to pace a bit, "Now you ain't holding any answers from me! I only have a fraction of the mind so you tell me everything right now!"

"..." Rey didn't immediately respond. He faced with his back turned to the two, standing at the very top floor of the Citadel. In front of his vision, a dark blob of energy was forming into what appeared to be a ball, morphing together with the surrounding atmosphere, and almost appearing to consume it. It was as if the air around the dark energy was dangerous, poisonous. Soon, the energy began to expand, forming into a sphere larger than Rey's own body. Twice as large, in fact. Large enough to walk through. Nothing could be seen from the other side, but a dark abyss.

The portal continued to expand and shape, with more energy gathering toward it by the second. He turned toward the two, finally speaking. "...I must admit that the reasons behind this elude me as well, and elude the memories of this body, which makes it all the more puzzling." He pondered for a moment, his eyes gazing on the marble ground of the Citadel. He closed his eyes, walking forward to the two other servants of chaos. "Give me your hands," He said to them, his eyes meeting their gaze now.

Paradox cocked his head and looked on down as well, "What? You feeling something I can't feel? Would make sense... I suppose. Look, while I would LOOOVE to hold hands and spread Chaos from up here, I have something else planned." The Golduck smirked evilly, "You remember that Abra from a while back, hmm? The one that always... surged?" His eyes glittered, "Get what I'm going at eh?"

Rey stood there silently, his eyes gazing at the dark Golduck who stood before him. He didn't change his facial expression, which remained a somewhat neutral glare. It didn't even appear as if the Golduck's words registered with him. "Give me your hands," He repeated in the same, solemn way as the first time.

Paradox stared and rolled his eyes, "Sheesh, I know now who NOT to bring to a party." He muttered. He walked over and held out his hands, "Fine, here you go. Though a please would have been nice ya know." He did grin, "Though Penance will be eager on this side to see if his theory about the Dark One is right. And at the same time he'll be horrified as well. How long before it's finished? I mean, the fights down there HAD to speed up the process ya know."

"Honestly," Blackguard sighed, approaching the other two. "Will you knock it off, Paradox? The plan can wait a moment. Besides, it's not like those pathetic creatures down there can survive us..." he looked to Rey, "...right?" Unsure, he gave his superior his hands, letting the small ball of aura float next to him. However, it began to expand, and formed a large screen, which then floated towards the entrance and placed itself over it. If any Gold Tribe were to try and breach the wall of aura, they would be attacked with an onslaught of Aura Spheres.

Rey took the hands of the two into his own, and closed his eyes, The instant he did this, inside of their minds, images flashed at a high pace and floated to the back of their skulls. Voices spoke at different volumes and speeds at the same time, creating a collection of combined noise that resonated through their minds, not making sense at first, but as they died down, the two felt what Rey had done.

"There," Rey said, opening his eyes and stepping back from Blackguard and Paradox. "Now our minds have been linked. Everything I know, now you too know, and vice versa," He stepped back to the forming dark void, and stuck out his hands, where purplish-dark energy poured out from it. "I have also siphoned a bit of extra energy from the two of you to speed up the process of what is to come. It shouldn't affect you both too much. It's mostly energy that you two have subconsciously collected when you've turned another to chaos." Rey dropped his hands, fully adding the extra energy from the two of them. "Just a bit more now..." He turned back to them after examining the dark energy for a second more.

"You may return back now. They seem to have the Gold Crystal among them. If you look through my memories, you'll know its possible to transfer part of that power to another object. Not nearly enough to be a problem, but enough to be a nuisance. Find it, destroy it. And while you're at it, destroy them too. They've proven useful in collecting an abundant amount of energy over time, but they are no longer required," Rey turned back around, admiring the built up dark energy which formed into a portal. "The Gold Tribe think they're winning. They think because they've beaten some of the others, it actually means something. They probably think they can beat you too.

Silver City

Blackguard suddenly leaving left Zane confused, but also relieved. He didn't know how much longer he and Guardia could have kept up with him. It was thankful that he had departed at that moment to give them a breather. As he looked around, he could tell that the others likely needed one as well. As Paradox and Blackguard retreated to the upper levels, the victors of the other battles gathered in the center of the room. The Healer, Blitzkrieg, and the Cleric seemed to have successfully defeated their opponents, though the Cleric seemed to have taken a fairly substantial wound to the left eye, which the Healer was currently examining. Sword and Shield, Dryad, Wildfire, and Bloodthirster all returned from their bout with the body of Sovereign on the outside of the Citadel, with Dryad being carried inside by the her Snorlax brother. She looked weak, clearly unable to stand at the moment, though more from exhaustion and weariness than her injuries. Sword and Shield himself had a rather large bite-mark on his shoulder, which drew quite a bit of blood. TrueStriker, Genevieve and the Keeper looked relatively alright, able to dispatch most of the Psychics without suffering too much damage. Vera and Snype were returning now from their own fight with the Toxicroak, though Snype seemed to be in pretty rough shape.

However, when Zane tried to examine the condition of those who versed Paradox, he saw a worn Levina alone, with Gallant lying on the ground to the side of the room. Zane walked over to examine his condition, hoping that he was still conscious, or not too badly injured. The Sawk lay on his back, and as he leaned over and flipped him over, his heart sank. He checked his neck for a pulse to make sure, but he already knew. Zane turned to the others and shook his head, the sign that Gallant the Sawk had perished. Most of the fighters hung their heads, from weariness or sadness, but most likely a combination of the two. Zane turned his head back to the body of the old Sawk and let himself sink to the ground, while the Healer relentlessly went to work on mending the injured as best as she could. They weren't done yet, but they all needed a moment for a breather. While he sat on the floor beside his dead teacher, Zane's mind wandered to his times back at the Heroes Alliance School, and the different lessons he and the others had to do before they were initiated into the Gold Tribe. One in particular involved the Wastes of Will, their final exam. For the final exam, students were deposited right dab in the middle of the Wastes with nothing in their possession, not even food, except a few other students with them. There, they had to remain for two days, until Gallant would pick them up. If they had remain conscious and intact, they had passed the exam. The purpose of this was the bonding of brotherhood and sisterhood the Gold Tribe would have gained with one another, where together, weak and starving in the middle of nowhere, one would support their comrades no matter the cost, even their lives.

Sacrifice is part of being in the Gold Tribe. A voice suddenly spoke in Zane's head, followed by the flashes again. He shook his head, clearing up his vision again and returning it to normal. He returned his attention to the others remaining, as they all were resting up and clearing their injuries. Seeing the Keeper now, Zane remembered as he spoke to all of their minds during the fighting.

"So," Zane began, gaining the attention of the Keeper, and the others around. "You said to us that the Gold Crystal is not gone."

The Keeper nodded. "No, not entirely gone." He walked over the cracked and broken floor of the chamber, approaching the shards of the Gold Crystal which lay under the imprint of the foot belonging to Blackguard. The Keeper picked these shards up, examining them in his hand. "This...this was the original encasement for the Gold Crystal. A lot of energy was lost when it was destroyed. Energy we could have used in the coming fights..." He brought his gaze from the shards to the Gold Tribe. "But not all of it. As you believed before Zane, the Gold Crystal can transfer its power. Thankfully, it had been done so. And just as those around the Silver Crystal become stronger the longer they would have been around it, the same goes for those who have been around the Gold Crystal. For the moment, while its power still exists, you are protected."

"But we've only had the Gold Crystal since Cape City." Zane replied, standing up now.

"You have had this Gold Crystal since Cape City," The Keeper replied, gesturing to the shards in his hands. "The transferred one has been with the Gold Tribe for...well, quite a while now."

Zane tilted his head, confused. "I don't understand. You transferred the part of the power of the Gold Crystal into another object, didn't you? How could it have been with us for that long?"

"It was transferred, but it wasn't done in recent times, while I traveled with you. This was something done years ago ago."

Zane nodded his head. He still didn't fully understand the Keeper's cryptic words, but Zane decided he wouldn't get much asking about these question in this manner. Instead, he asked directly. "So then, where is the Gold Crystal?"

The Keeper let a smile cover his wrinkly face. "Right..." He began, lifting up a finger as to apparently point to the object in question. Guardia and Dryad followed his finger as it floated across the room to reach its target. "...here." He ended, his old, wrinkly finger stopping at the apparent object. Some of the Gold Tribe wore confused looks on their faces, as the finger stopped and pointed at none other than Zane Tyrael.

Zane cocked an eyebrow, wondering if the Keeper was pointing to something on the Bisharp's person. He looked down, following the trace of the pointing finger. But it didn't point to any object. Not his emblem, or any items he held. He pointed directly at the chest of the Bisharp. He stared, bewildered, at the old Alakazam, waiting for him to explain. The Keeper kept his warm smile on his face, and turned around, looking out at the city through the hole in the wall the Behemoth had helped create.

"So much to say, but where to begin..." The Keeper's eyes closed, trying to formulate the words he would speak next.

"You have had quite a journey. Much has happened, as you have described to me and the others after you picked me up from the Golden Catacombs. Much that, if looked at with the observant eye, can be enlightening."

"Do you remember when the Gold Tribe ventured inside of the Thieves Forest? You prepared for the ambush that would help ensure the Thieves' help for the battle of Albia," He stated, not expecting an immediate answer, though the memory was fresh in Zane's mind now. "The ambush was tragic, of course, as you have all described to me. You have paid for it with blood. But in that ambush, you were not present, were you, Zane? In the ambush, you were elected to stay behind with the King of Thieves. Thus, the remainder of the Gold Tribe tragically lost a brethren due to the illusions cast by the power of the Silver Crystal...a power which would not have been present if you were there."

Zane remembered. Penance, who he still called Defender there, suggested he stay behind. He only found out about everything after. He regretted not going, but he still didn't understand where the Keeper was going with this. What did this have to do with anything? He remained silent. The Keeper began to speak again.

"Do you remember Alba? There, you witnessed the first signs of the growing power of the Silver Crystal. It came in the form of what is known as the 'chaos form', a powerful ability. Ignitus used it first, but her transformation was much more...forced than it should have been. Much more force was required for her to activate it, the wielder going so far as to have her become as mindless as an Ancient in order for her transformation to take effect." Zane remembered. He could clearly recall the Flareon's bones break and disfigure from within those black flames. "It was because of your presence that this happened. The Inferno's transformation went much smoother. The Silver Crystal's increasing power was a factor, but so was the lack of your presence before him."

"...my presence...?" Zane's whole body shook. A vague picture was beginning to form in his head, but still little made sense.

"Do you remember when Frost finally fell in the end of that battle, she too was about to transform into chaos. You saw it in her eyes. You saw it beginning...but you held her in your arms, and at the last moment, you saw her eyes changed completely, departing from chaos, departing even from control of the Silver Crystal. And thus, she pointed you to the direction of the Golden Catacombs." Zane remembered. He wondered why Frost had led them to the Gold Catacombs. Looking back, he realized how much that direction had helped the Gold Tribe discover everything that was happening, to discover the true nature of this war. Zane looked on to the Keeper, afraid of what he was going to say next, but also afraid of not knowing the truth.

"Why do you think you trigger whether these events would happen? Or wouldn't happen? Why do you think Adam "Rey" Reed took a young Guardia to meet you and your family on the same day he took her to see the Gold Crystal below Cape City for the first time? Why do you think when you close your eyes at night, you see dreams of people and places you've never seen before? Why do you think you hear the voices and images of Pokemon long past in your head, especially in these times of conflict with the Silver Crystal? Why...oh why...do you think your body is coated in gold?"

"It is because, Zane Tyrael, you...are the Gold Crystal."

__________________

A Legend once told me that roleplaying is about bringing people together and celebrating creative vision.
Paired with the ArtsyInfinite and the Spectacular Shak

Memories, such a fickle and teasing mistress they were for Genevieve. For so long now, she had vaguely the faintest idea of her own self, not to mention the impossible hope of remembering others. Yes, of course, there were connections and foggy details here and there, but clear, distinct memories were so rare to her now, that it truly worried her if she would ever remember herself fully once again. Who was Genevieve? Or better yet, who is she now since she can’t remember? It was much like shining a light into an empty cavern. Yes, you could see a part of it, but never enough to illuminate its entirety. It was like walking in perpetual darkness.

She listened to the Keeper speak, her mind not fully paying attention to his ramblings until he got to the point. Had Genevieve always been so impatient? So fond of brevity and directness? She couldn’t remember. But it was then, that the Keeper’s words touched her. It seemed to set her ablaze and light up her darkness, even if momentarily.

Staggering where she stood, she had to fight the urge to collapse, her body longing to succumb to darkness once more. “N-no,” she mumbled to herself almost incoherently. Was there another force at work on her mind now, or was it internal warfare? Again, no answer. How she longed for the serenity of her white room, to project images and live in her fantasy world. She wanted to run away from this all, almost wishing for death.

It was like being touched by the mind of another psychic, something she herself was sure she had done in the past. Like somebody stuck a lever in her brain and began to push down, releasing the slightest bit of coherence from beneath the suffocating boulder.

“Rey?” She asked quietly, her gaze shifting from person to person in the room. “I, I remember now….the memories. The ones you asked, almost begged me to remove.” Genevieve lifted her hands and began to study them almost as if they were not her own. Maybe they weren’t, was this actually her body anymore, or did it belong to somebody else? These hands were used for such evil and hatred, it almost sickened her.

“Zane! The memories were about Zane.” The one who’s memories she removed being not in her presence, she turned her attention to the one they were about. Standing there, right in front of her, it was Zane. It had really been all about Zane now that she remembered and could think. It all made so much sense to hear it. How could she have been so foolish and clouded? Keeper had ridded her of that lack of clarity, or rather, maybe it was the presence of the Gold Star, prolonged exposure. She knew not how amnesia worked with these extenuating circumstances.

“Rey had me exorcise memories from his mind, purging all his recollection of you before I went north with Auron… That’s why he chose me, he knew. Rey knew that I wouldn’t remember after I was exposed to what lay in the north. The Silver Crystal, Auron…” She paused and shivered at her own thoughts and fears. It was as if a cold wind cut through her flesh, right to the bone.

“Rey found you, Zane. Abandoned and alone in the outskirts of Cape City. From his perspective, I can still see him looking down on you, as he came upon your resting place. You see, about one hundred years ago, the Silver Crystal had been released before. The Gold Tribe leaders would sometimes transfer some of the energy from the Gold Crystal inside another Pokemon as a sort of…insurance policy.” Pointing a hand at Zane, she smiled weakly, her mind throbbing from the recollection.

“He did that to you. In addition to sending you off to live with one of his friend’s and their family, he imbued you with that power. You were raised as their child, but you had such a higher purpose it would seem.” She looked down and focused intently, as if trying to eek out the last drops of remembrance from the event.

“When he began to lose himself to the power of the Silver Crystal, a feeling I know all too well, he came to me. He knew that this had to be a secret kept from the Dark One. That if I didn’t remove this memory of who was imbued with this power from him, all could potentially be lost. At the time, I didn’t understand why he came to me, but I see now. He knew I was heading north and that I myself would lose memory of who I was….am.”

Genevieve couldn’t help herself, she began to cry, her tears coming softly and rolling down her face in small, almost beautiful beads. Wiping at her eyes gently to dry them, she tried her best to control herself. “But I remember now. I think I remember everything. Zane, the Gold Crystal. And Genevieve, the Siren.”

Words seemed to hit harder to Zane's core in the last few minutes than any injury he had received in the last two years. He was frozen in place, mulling over everything to make sure he understood correctly. As he grew up, he had developed what he thought was an understanding of how the world worked, his life, and what he was meant for. It seemed to be set in stone for him. There wasn't anything too abnormal with his childhood or the direction his life went. Even joining the Gold Tribe was something he had expected to do since he was young. Now, everything he knew seemed to be crumbling away, and in its place, a deeper, darker image of his life filled it.

Guardia stood beside his friend, not possibly knowing what was going on in his head, but determined to try to do something to help make this discovery a bit more easier. Yet nothing came to mind. None of it made sense, and yet as she thought about it, all of it did. Guardia remembered the first time she was taken to meet Zane and his family, also being the first time she met Zane. Her father Rey seemed to have time those on the exact same date. Yet for both of them, a piece of this still didn't make sense.

"But..." Guardia began. "...if my father, if Rey did know about all this, and he was the Wielder, why didn't he mention it at all, or do something about it earlier? Why didn't he try to stop it before?"

Zane didn't speak, but he too wondered this. He also wondered another thing, why Rey didn't apparently recognize Zane before, when he was in this room. He seemed to address Zane as if he wasn't known to him. At first, Zane thought this was possibly something that affected his memory with all of them. But when he looked back at his speech, Rey identified other Gold Tribe members. Just not him.

Genevieve was quick to fill in the blanks. A memory that had apparently returned to her, or perhaps all of them now. What it pointed out, however, was enough to fill in the missing blanks.

"It seems..." The Keeper began. "That the Gold Tribe leader foresaw what could happen, and tried to fight it the best way he could...from himself."

Zane shook his head, looking up to the stairs that led to where Rey, Paradox and Blackguard previously ascended to. What could he make of this? He wanted to continue to move forward, to help in whatever way they could. But when such information comes out that shakes ones entire foundation as an individual, it's hard to focus. This is exactly what Zane was feeling at the moment. Everything he knew was essentially not what it seemed. Inside of him, or all these years, he was just another product of what he had argued to get rid of in Cape City. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't even speak right now. It was like a lump formed in his throat, which prevented him from saying anything.

But even if he could speak, what could he have possibly said?

You are tools, A voice said in his mind. Was that all he was? What that all he was the entire time? Was he even really a person, or was he just a figure in a plan way beyond his control?

Flashes of images made its way to his vision, throwing him off. He clutched his head and aimed to the ground. In his closed eyes, a picture formed, and as he opened them, the picture stayed burnt into his vision. A room, white and endless, was occupied by himself, and another Pokemon. A Zangoose. Unlike previous dreams and visions in which he didn't immediately recognize the Pokemon, he knew this one instantly. It was Rey. He sat there in the blankness of semi-reality, and smiled at him.

"Forget everything else," His voice echoed across the white room. "Just remember who you are."

Zane blinked, trying to understand what he meant. He shook his head in the white room. On the outside, he continued to clutch his head. "I...don't know...." He finally muttered out.

"Yes you do..." Rey spoke again. "You know it. But more importantly, behind you, all of them know it." At their mentioning, Zane turned to look at them. They stood there, preparing for what happens next, ready to face down the end of the world if necessary. All for what they believed in, and what they stood for.

"So...who are you?"

"...my name is Zane Tyrael," He replied in the white room.

Rey nodded. "And what are you?"

"I...I am a member of the Gold Tribe."

"And what is the purpose of the Gold Tribe?"

"To..." Zane stood up. "To honor our customs and traditions. To respect our fellow Pokemon. To protect those who can't be protected, and those who ask to be protected. To defend the freedom and liberty of the Alpha Alliance. To do this as an oath...on our honor, on our hearts, on our lives."

Rey smiled in the white room, just as Zane's vision of it began to blur. The image slowly began to fade away, as he spoke to him again. "Forget everything else, and just remember that. You're Zane Tyrael, you're a member of the Gold Tribe, and you have taken an oath. A heavy burden is placed on all of you the moment you take that oath. But everything else, all new information and concepts that form...new ideas and innovations, tragedies and fortunes, secrets and discoveries....they're all just parts. Parts that help relieve the burden of the oath, or make that burden that much harder to carry."

"In the end, it's just you, the Gold Tribe, and the oath..."

Zane opened his eyes, seeing his vision return to normal. He stood up, rubbing his eyes once, and then turning to the others. He was ready. Despite everything that happened, from that past few years to the past few minutes, he was ready. By removing that small memory, Rey gave them one last chance to end it all, just as Zane intended. Just as they all did.

One small, final chance for an ending they desired.

__________________

A Legend once told me that roleplaying is about bringing people together and celebrating creative vision.
Paired with the ArtsyInfinite and the Spectacular Shak

Paladin watched the scenes before him unfold with folded arms and a frustrated expression. This was mainly due to the fact that he could not help which, being a proud and honorable Gold Tribesman, was something he felt compelled to do. However, he did notice that his brothers and sisters didn't seem to be doing so badly on their own. He couldn't help but flinch when the Swift was killed though; although he did not know the Pokemon that well, the sight of one of his brothers dying always felt like a stab to the face.

Then, as the fighting finally ceased and the monstrous Blackguard and Paradox retreated for unknown reasons, Paladin began to feel something. It was strange at first, like a ray of sunlight shining on his body in this bleak room. The feeling grew into something more powerful, something which compelled him to stand up and walk closer to the mirror portraying the outside world. Extending a hand towards it, he felt the feeling on his fingertips stronger and more concentrated.

"Do you feel that?" Paladin asked, mysitifed. "It's powerful... unlike anything I've ever felt." He allowed it to surge through his body a bit more, and suddenly found all negative emotions to be suppressed in his mind. "It's the Gold Crystal. Its power still lives."

Brynn was inspecting a seemingly random spot on the upper half of the room when Paladin spoke. She still had an eye and ear on Hanso's surroundings, of course, but hey, might as well make sure everything was shipshape.

"Hm?" The Gardevoir paused, head half-turned toward the Golurk. After a moment, she felt the same thing. "So it does. I would have been miffed if it didn't stick around after the Crystal was destroyed." Brynn floated down to Paladin's side, eyes on the mirror. "As I understand it, it should still be centered on the Gold Crystal's shards. If Hanso would get closer to them..."

Moving back to the vault-door, Brynn raised a hand and began tapping out a rhythm with her knuckles.

"No," Paladin said suddenly. Closing his eyes, he focused on the image of the outside world, trying to locate the source of the power. Panning the view of the mirror left and right to look around, he felt the power surge through him far more than it had, as he had laid eyes upon...

"Zane." Paladin chuckled somewhat at the sight of his old friend, alive, but not so well. It appeared that, ironically, it was Paladin's own dark half that had beaten him down, for which he could not help but feel guilty. However, surging through the Bisharp's body, Paladin could feel the powerful, concentrated energy of the Gold Crystal.

"Zane Tyrael... he has the power. He IS the Gold Crystal," Paladin explained. "Get Hanso to speak with him. I have an idea."

Hanso remained standing as he looked around, slowly relaxing as he realized that the fighting was more or less over. All the same, the Gallade wearily charged up a Future Sight and released it to where it could pend and build up. Once that was done, Hanso began walking among the rest of the group, releasing a Heal Pulse for each Pokemon. He still had the energy of Brynn and Paladin to draw on.

As the others talked, Hanso felt numb. Sooner or later, the full import of what the Keeper was saying would hit him. When he came to Snype, Hanso frowned and pulled the sack of his back. "Weird how it's stayed on," he muttered, looking inside for berries. All he came up with were two Pechas. Hanso mutely handed Snype one of the Pechas for his poison, then the other Pecha to Vera.

Hanso had just finished and was standing more or less alone when he heard a rhythm tapped out inside his head. What is it, Brynn?

Paladin has an idea, and you need to speak with Zane. Yes, Paladin's still alive, brother. Explains why Blackguard is still around, if you haven't figured that out.

Seeing Genevieve begin to break down, Hanso froze for a moment, unsure if he needed to do something. ...Let her cry it out for a bit. He began walking toward Zane, waiting for a chance to break in. "Hey, Zane. There's somethin' you need to hear...once Paladin tells me what his idea is."

Zane turned to Hanso, and nodded slowly. However, it took him a moment to register exactly what he said. "Wait...Paladin?" He asked. Apparently, there was more going on than what he knew. He figured it would all be revealed to him so he saved what questions he had for the moment and simply nodded again. "Alright."

Paladin cracked his knuckles, a more determined grin on his face. "Alright then...Hanso, listen carefully." Hanso returned Zane's nod with his own and connected with the Bisharp's mind and that of the Keeper, allowing them both to hear Paladin's end of the channel that Brynn had helped create.

"Zane is the emergency Gold Crystal, from what I can gather. It's why I was myself again while I was around him; the presence of Blackguard felt suppressed. But, you know that already now. What I need you and Brynn to do is reach into the deepest and most rooted parts of Zane's mind and extract some of the Gold Crystal's power from it. In any other Pokemon the power would probably not do any good, but locked inside an object its power can flourish. You and Brynn will transfer the energy into this gem."

"If I'm right, this should empower Brynn and I, combining what is left of our consciousness with the power from Zane's own. This power will be enough to combat the darkness of Paradox and Blackguard. After we've done this, Hanso, I need you to get as close as you can to Blackguard and jab this gem into him. This will give us access to his mind, where we'll fight him."

Paladin chuckled, "Now here's the clincher." He began pacing, "Blackguard's mind is connected to Paradox's, and he'll escape to Paradox's mind when he sees he can't beat us. I discovered that this opens a passageway between the two minds when Blackguard dumped me here. We will follow him through the passage and into Paradox's mind, where we'll kill both of them and purify Penance's mind. If we do this right, we could bring him back."

Paladin rubbed his head, "Heh, hey Hanso, tell Zane I said he did good. Tell him I'm proud of him."

Zane couldn't help but smiled as he heard Paladin's voice enter his mind from the connection Hanso had made. The two of them went way back, back before the madness of this war. In his early days in the Gold Tribe, Paladin had helped look out for him and teach him the ropes of what it meant to be in the Gold Tribe. When he had learned that Paladin had survived the war thus far and met up with the again in Cape City, he was overjoyed. When he suddenly disappeared again after that battle, he assumed the worst. Now, he was just happy to hear his friend's voice again, reassuring him as he had always done.

"I understand," Zane said out loud. "Do what you need to do. And...thanks Paladin."

"I am also reading to assist, including with the transferring process," Zane heard the Keeper speak through their channel. Looking at the old Alakazam in the chamber, he had his eyes closed, breathing normally, and a gentle smile across his wrinkly face.

Hanso's gaze had wandered back to Genevieve while Paladin related his plan. Every psychic they could get to help destroy the two Sentinels would be invaluable. If she can pull it back together, Hanso thought to himself.

Of course she will, silly, Brynn said casually. She might need a bit of help, though. Maybe. Turning her attention back to those outside the gem, she clapped her hands. "Okay, now that we know what to do, this extraction should take only a few moments..."

"...in the physical realm," Hanso finished, turning back to Zane with glowing eyes. With little warning, the SharpEye twins carefully pushed into Zane's mind, looking for the focus of the Gold Crystal's power.

Zane instantly felt the penetration in his mind. It felt like someone was pressing an ice-cold finger upon his bare, metallic skin, and somehow being colder than his body. He felt his mind almost instantaneously struggle as a reflex, but he eventually made it loosened up and allow their passage to be much easier. He closed his eyes, and relaxed his breathing, allowing them in, where they could find the power, and take some of it.

Deep within his mind, a power dormant for over twenty years lay hidden, attached now to the host's soul, but ready to be broken apart to help a cause. The power was receptive to the twins the closer they got to it, as if it had a mind of its own, and wanted to help.

"That's not gonna happen every time, is it?" Hanso asked, glancing at the small circle of frost that surrounded Brynn. "Don't want to make this any less comfortable."

"Oh. No, no, it won't." Brynn's voice was dismissive as the frost disappeared at her command. "I think." She left a trail of markers as the twins delved deeper, marking the way back out. They probably wouldn't need it that badly, more as a precaution. It wasn't long before Hanso and Brynn stood before the core of the power. "Found it."

"You said you were ready to assist, Keeper," Hanso relayed, beginning to reach for the power.

"Yes, keep going," He assured them. As they stood before the power, it lit up in a brilliant flash of light. The power seemed to draw towards them now, with bits of the energy reaching out for them and making contact. They would have felt a surge of some sort of powerful energy around their body for only a brief moment, and then all would be normal again. As the light faded, the power in the center seemed only a fraction smaller, while around the twins, energy from the collected source swirled around, bound to them.

"Time to go," Brynn stated unnecessarily, watching a piece of energy play over her hand briefly.

Hanso turned to go, then hesitated when his sister didn't follow immediately. "No, sister," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder and pulling her with him. "I didn't take you to be the kind to do that."

"What? It's not as if I was going to compell him to join the Affiliates when this is over, or anything. Penance already has his plans for the Gold Tribe. Or had, as the case may be. We may never see that happen, anyway."

Hanso took a deep breath, coming out of his trance and stepping back from Zane. He could sense Brynn working to draw the energy away from him and into the gem at his neck. "Done."

Zane opened his eyes too, feeling the intrusion into his mind pass away. He opened his eyes just as Hanso was stepping back from him. The gem around his neck shone for a brief moment before the light dimmed. He nodded to them. They were all set now.

Paladin shut his eyes, allowing the energy to seep into the very core of his being. He felt the power spread across his metaphysical body, from his head to his arms to his feet, until he felt completely renewed. He sighed and looked down at himself; there, the color of his body had changed once again. Parts of his large form were covered in a gold hue, while others still remained the normal blue-green they had once been.

"Alright..." Paladin said, moving his body around a bit and finding that he was now able to move much faster than he should have been able to. "Let's end this."

Snype appeared to be in pain, after their struggle with Varren. She was glad to be rid of the gangster. Vera could see the events transpiring between Rey and Zane. It seemed the final act had presented itself. "I'll find you a medic."

Vera ran out from the Citadel, her goal much more personal. Now that Varren was out of the picture, she had to find out what happened to Sovereign. it didn't take long for her to find it: the lifeless corpse left behind.The battle had appeared to take a tole on everyone involved, and who would survive was not certain. The dragon, however, she recognized. She had never met him personally, but she had seen him flying over the city of Albia, and she had heard of him from Sovereign. He yielded much respect from him.

Vera slung Sovereign's body over her shoulder, a large mass which was incredibly heavy. She could handle it though. It wasn't the first time she had carried him, but it was certainly the last. She looked at Ragnaros somberly. "Thank you." And then she walked off. The rest of this conflict was not for her. She had played her role. whatever happened with Rey was out of her hands.

As she made it further out, she encountered a group of nurses, who tried to approach her about the body she carried. She brushed them aside, telling them that she didn't need their help, but that there were others who did, closer to the citadel. Several wounded, and one poisoned.

Vera reached out to Hanso one more time. "Goodbye, Hanso. I'm going back to where this all began." She severed their connection from her mind before he could reply. "I think I made another friend, Sovereign."

Some of the nurses approached Snype and offered to fix him up. Snype grunted and nodded to them. He had no plans of going out like this. Talk about anti climatic! "hmph... just hurry up and get this poison ou- ugh..." Snype mutted. He was layed down onto the ground to be taken care of. They made sure to feed him a Pecha Berry as well as use their natural healing abilities. A Chansey was taking care of him so Snype already knew he'd be in good hands. They were great caretakers.

Snype looked up to Vera as she headed further out. Blast. He could have at least thanked her. Thanking her... psh. This was so unlike Snype. He was getting soft. Way more soft then he'd like. He was supposed to be the biggest meanest thief around and here he was supporting his enemies. He wasn't sure if he liked it, but as long as they kept the world intact he'd have to deal with it. Especially if he were to pursue his own goals in the future. A new thieves guild where he would run things. Either to make up for his past mistakes or just in spite of the previous leader. Whatever came first.

Snype eventually was brought back to good physical shape and the poison was taken out of his body. He could at least fight again. No broken bones yet... he was a ghost after all. His body worked differently. "Keh. Thanks. Go help the others." Snype said as he got up on his feet. He still needed to catch his breath. He had to be in top shape for any upcoming fights.

The long walk up the stairs began for the remaining fighters, who had bled for what seemed like an eternity in this war. Their bodies had been damaged in all manner of ways in the past two years, with each individual scar or broken bone having a separate story behind it. The healers who helped treat these injuries did a well enough job on everyone to get them back on their feet, but for many of them, some of the injuries were beyond healing. Some of them weren't even physical wounds anymore. Zane knew that the conflict with the Silver Tribe had taken a toll on both his mind and body in ways he never foresaw. He was tired, physically and emotionally, of all of the events that he had been apart of. He wanted an end. Going up the stairs now to towards the top of the Citadel of Silver City, he felt that he was finally going to get one.

But was it going to be the one he desired? Would they be able to beat Rey, Paradox and Blackguard? Would they be able to stop the Dark One? Even if the Dark One was stopped, would they be able to save Valkaria? If Valkaria survives, would the Gold Tribe have to pay the ultimate price to ensure it? If the Gold Tribe does manage to live on, how much longer would it be before they would just die out?

So many questions, and only in the end of it all would he finally get those answers, if he would make it that long.

The fights reached the floor right below the top one, and the Keeper stopped and stared into this level before closing his eyes. "A presence is here. Two of them. The two born of Chaos are on this level," He commented, before opening his eyes again. "Victory cannot be achieved unless all three are brought down."

Zane nodded, knowing that some of them would have to split up in order to make it happen. Knowing Paladin had a plan that involved Hanso, he knew he would have to go with them. Genevieve decided to go as well, which made sense to him, but Zane was surprised when Blitzkrieg and the Cleric decided to join them. Perhaps they thought they would need help, and Zane probably agreed. This would be their fight to win. "Good luck," He called out to them, hoping whatever they planned would work out as they intended.

The rest made their way up the last set of stairs. As Zane walked those final few steps, he looked down at the others in the lower floor, before they departed from his vision behind the stairs he climbed. He wondered if he'd ever see them again. The climactic nature of this entire battle seemed to give off the sensation that some of them may not come back from it. Perhaps none of them. He hoped TrueStriker, Blitzkrieg, the Cleric and Genevieve would be alright.

His mind focused back to the climb, the last steps before they reached the top of the Citadel, the final level. There was nothing there anymore, beyond a long hallway of white tiles and pillars. All ornaments and furniture that might have occupied this room was long gone, giving Zane the feeling of emptiness that he felt the Silver Tribe had within them, Ancients and Sentinels alike.

At the end of the hallway was displayed a portal of purple-black energy, constantly expanding and contracting as if it fought within itself of control of itself as a stabilized entity, but unable to make up its mind on which form it took. Instead, the energy appeared chaotic and untamed, surrounding the portal through which nothing on the other end could be seen. Not yet anyway.

Standing in front of the dark mass of energy was the Zangoose, Rey. As the Gold Tribe leader, he was their friend and mentor. As the Silver Tribe leader, he is their greatest foe and oppressor. Without him, they could have never gotten this far, and now only with him gone can they go any further.

__________________

A Legend once told me that roleplaying is about bringing people together and celebrating creative vision.
Paired with the ArtsyInfinite and the Spectacular Shak

Daricka was silent as she marched up the stairs of the Citadel with her brethren, only the healing she had received on the floor below and determination to finish the war once and for all keeping her moving. While she did indeed feel refreshed after being the target of a Chansey's Heal Pulse, there was nothing that would be able to retrieve the years she had siphoned off by using the Life Flames. However, at least now she felt strong enough to put up more of a fight... And while she didn't regret using the Life Flames as she had, she would be more wary with their use from this moment onward. She'd need every advantage they could give her, and she couldn't risk using them at the wrong moment and wearing herself out too quickly. She was going to make every moment count.

Just before the final floor, she watched as TrueStriker, Genevieve, Blitzkrieg, and the Cleric parted from the group to carry out Paladin's plan against BlackGuard and Paradox, leaving the rest to continue on to the top floor of the Citadel.

At the end of the long hallway that lay at the top of the stairs, Rey stood in front of mass of writhing, dark energy. Daricka's eyes locked on the Zangoose: once their leader and brother, and now the one they must destroy to return peace to the world. Her diminished flames flared with her determination, her fists clenched and ready to pummel their foe into submission.

Zane looked on to the dark abyss that gathered at the back of the room. He was certain that it was the portal the Keeper spoke of earlier, the one the Dark One would come out of, and the one the Gold Crystal was supposed to enter. Even now, he could see it slowly and subtly expanding, as if more and more energy was gathering towards it. Even if they did nothing here, energy from a country at war would ensure the Dark One's return. Every moment they wasted could turn out to be a huge blow. They were running out of time. As much as he would like to see their options, to approach the battle more carefully, to say something more substantial to their former leader, they didn't have that luxury. Rey wouldn't have wanted it either. At least, that's what Zane felt.

"A final coronation..." Rey spoke from the silence, perhaps not intending to be heard by the group, or perhaps he was. Nevertheless, the echo of an empty chamber made it known to everyone present. "We are the last witnesses to the end of one world order and the first casualties of the new one." He spoke more loudly, the chamber continuing to echo his words across. "None of you could possibly imagine what's to come. And yet here you all stand to oppose it. I suppose I shouldn't expect anything less," He concluded, turning around to face the group. "But even you all know that you're too late to stop it."

"...someone once told me that any opponent can be defeated, any obstacle overcome, if those who oppose it fight as one, think as one, believe as one." Zane replied. The moment he said the words that Rey spoke to him many years before, he saw visibly even from across the room that the words resonated with him. He even thought he saw a small smirk, so indistinct and hidden that it almost didn't show itself on his face. But he knew, deep down, Zane thought he looked as if he remembered, which is what was going to make this all the more harder to do.

"You just don't get it, do you?" Rey uttered, shaking his head and reverting back to the stone expression he had held moments before. "You think you're fighting your leader, but it is beyond that now. You think you're fighting the wielder, but I am more than just the carrier of the Silver Crystal," The dark energy from the portal began to react, lighting up before swirling around. Visibly from inside the portal, from the other side, which led to the Dark One's realm, strings of the chaotic power poured out in bulk. They began to latch onto the Zangoose who stood in front of the portal, first a few in number, before dozens more came out. The energy expanded in size and scope, and the black-purple power flowed freely in mass, all going into and around Rey. Energy poured inside him, and all that couldn't reach into his body began to swirl around him. A shape was beginning to form around him now, latching a few inches from his fur and taking a more solid identity.

When it had reached some sort of physical form, it appeared as if Rey was surrounded by a layer of dark, chaotic energy, while the excess energy which went into his body altered his eyes and skin to a dark color. And still, the energy poured around, until the physical form didn't seem like it could continue to sustain itself in any natural, solid shape and merely began to flow around him rapidly like static.

"I am the Dark One." He uttered, his tone of voice seeming to be speaking for two entities now, both of which Zane was unsure exactly of their identity, only that they caused a shiver down his spine.

He faced his opponents, the last of the defenders of Valkaria, who met him not with fear but with a determination bred from constant battling over the course of this war. They were determined to end this, and even the sight of their leader in all of his might wouldn't derail them.

Yet to those who knew of Rey, they knew he was no easy opponent. He earned his place as their leader with the skills matching the all-time greats of the Gold Tribe. He had the fighting tact of Scar, the rigid endurance of Beserker, the killing instinct of Noxious, the lethality of Frost, the explosiveness of Ignitus, the brilliance of Deluge, the destructiveness of the Inferno, the agility of Sentry, and the power of Auron.

But beyond that, he had attained the status of divinity with the Dark One's essence now coursing through him. He had become a god, and he was about to show the extent of his extraordinary power.

Raising one arm forward, Rey cast an attack upon the gathered. It was unclear at first which move he was calling forth, the attack appearing so distorted and unnatural, but as it formed into a somewhat readable move, Zane saw that they were being struck by a dark Thunder, one that appeared to be amplified and tailored to attack not only anything in sight and range, but also to deal devastating damage. The chaotic, dark electricity bounced across the walls, straggler shocks scorching through the marble as if it were paper and going clear through into the sky. Dozens of holes filled the roof of the Citadel, and dozens more came soon after. Eventually, multiple portions of the roof collapsed around to the large amount of damage done to it. This only being the shockwave of his attack, the main one was fired upon the Gold Tribe.

And thus with this monstrous first attack, the battle, perhaps the last battle the Gold Tribe would ever fight again, had commenced.

__________________

A Legend once told me that roleplaying is about bringing people together and celebrating creative vision.
Paired with the ArtsyInfinite and the Spectacular Shak

Snype and Levina followed Zane up the stairs until they eventually made it to the top of the Citadel. There was a portal in the room with what Snype figured was the boss of the Silver Tribe. Tsk. Working for the Silver Tribe and he really didn't know his employer... what a sham. Snype couldn't wait to take this guy out. As long as he got things over with... he could focus on what would happen afterwards. Snype instinctively backed up a step when the chaotic energy wrapped around the Zangoose.

Snype prepared Detect to see the first lightning bolt coming... Before the bolt struck,, He jumped onto Levina and quickly got moving. "Levina! Move!" Snype said. At this point, she was getting used to just simply following Snype's orders. She hated it as usual but at this point, she was getting self conscious. That little Sableye had saved her butt more times then she could count. Snype was the first to open up an attack onto Rey. He quickly used Will-o-Wisp, combined with a Thunder Bolt from Levina.

As Rey's first attack drew closer, scattering destruction in its path, Daricka's Life Flames activated and she went into a whirlwind of motion. She danced by the lightning bolts with careful precision, each time managing to just get out of the way as one lanced towards her with destructive force. Once she had escaped the danger of the premier attack, her Life Flames faded away to leave her in her normal form; she didn't want to overuse them, in case there was desperate need of them later.

Spying Snype firing a Will-o-Wisp at Rey, Daricka molded a loosely-formed Focus Blast together with flames from a Flare Blitz that only enveloped her hand, then she sent the orb towards the Will-o-Wisp. The energy from the Focus Blast acted more as a container for the flames within it, and once it made contact with the Will-o-Wisp it would dissipate to allow her own flames to empower the Sableye's burning attack.

Daricka didn't stop there, however; forming the container for the flames had taken hardly a moment, and now her sight was already working in function with her mind to track the best course of attack from here, and launching a plan into action. It was risky to get too close, but her best power lay in physical attacks. Using Feint combined with a brief Flare Blitz, Daricka jetted herself closer to Rey; while Feint could be considered useless when the foe was not using a protecting move, it lent a little extra speed to the user. That along with fire from the Flare Blitz gave her enough of a boost to get within striking distance within a matter of moments. With Flare Blitz still in motion, her Life Flames flickered into being once again and wrapped around her being. She reared a fist back, a small Focus Blast whirling to life in her palm, then struck at Rey, a Close Combat adding extra another surge of power to the attack.

"...someone once told me that any opponent can be defeated, any obstacle overcome, if those who oppose it fight as one, think as one, believe as one." Vigil said, making Ragnaros shut his jaws tightly in a smirk. We'll see about that.

"You just don't get it, do you?" Rey said, shaking his head and reverting back to the stone expression he had held moments before. "You think you're fighting your leader, but it is beyond that now. You think you're fighting the wielder, but I am more than just the carrier of the Silver Crystal." Behind Rey, the portal that led to the Dark One's realm ejected strings of dark energy that surrounded at first, then engulfed the Zangoose. Ragnaros was panting heavily from the fighting he had done before, but this was the time of his life... the final battle. Perhaps.

"I am the Dark One."

The distorted, dark lightning that flew almost hit Ragnaros, who jerked violently to the side, letting out a brief, raspy laugh. "Next you'll tell us you're Arceus," he muttered, facing the former leader of the Gold Tribe. He never believed he would do this, but it suddenly seemed so easy now. Who Rey was and what he had become were things different in Ragnaros' mind.

He took notice of Daricka going in the melee, too close to Rey, and thought, some flames may harm her not. Without reluctance, the Salamence dropped his jaws and unleashed a thick, roaring stream of flames, embers flying everywhere with it towards Rey.

Zane's eyes opened wide, the incoming attack showering the area in a spectacle the likes of which he had never seen before. He knew if they didn't move now, the Thunder would make short work of them. The Gold Tribe moved, with Zane trying to move out of the way to the left of the room, traveling along the outskirts to hopefully avoid the main assault of the attack. He found, however, that it was getting harder and harder to find any wiggle room. Yet he was thankful in having Guardia beside him, who also used her own Thunder as a defense among any incoming smaller attacks, allowing the two of them to pass through the side of the room more effectively together.

But one strike along her Thunder barrier from a single strand of the dark lightning showed it's ferocity. Guardia stopped in place, her entire shield collapsing in front of her. She opened her mouth wide in disbelief, for only a brief second, knowing if she stayed in place any longer, her body would meet another attack.

Sword and Shield and Dryad did their best to dodge through as well, with the Snorlax trying to use a Wild Charge on any electricity about to impact his body, hopefully lessening the blows they would do. As the first one hit him, he felt the surprisingly enormous tingling of the attack, passing straight through his body and out, leaving him breathless and weak. And that was a single blow. There was no way he could take much more than that.

Through the rain of Thunder, the fighters concluded the only way to avoid more damage was to give more damage, and so they went on the offensive. Zane and Guardia both unleashed their own ranged attacks, a Thunder Wave and a Thunder at Rey, as they were unable to close enough distance to make a closer-ranged move. Snype and Levina did a combo Thunderbolt-Will-O-Wisp as well as Bloodthirster moving in with his own set of flames. Zane hopefully intended that these moves would harm Rey enough for Wildfire to do some more serious damage up front.

But what he remembered was the Rey had a specialty for close-ranged fighting as well.

The first string of attacks that came at Rey were halted as he brought up the signature Reed family Thunder defense, blocking Zane's and Guardia's first attacks. The shield held firm against the following moves after, but soon began to distort as more firepower was being rained on it. Rey seemed to notice this, and broke the shield himself, concentrating all of the energy coming at him and allowing it to pass close to him. The will-o-wisp, the thunder-based attacks, the flames, all passed close to him, but then stopped right before, as his Thunder-based shield now seemed to whirl around him in a twirling field of energy. The attacks began to twirl around with his own Thunder, circling the Zangoose slowly, before speeding up. He closed his eyes for a moment to concentrate the energy again, causing the Gold Tribe's attacks to slow down once more, and all form into one, multi-colored other attack in front of him. Combined with the dark energies swirling around the Zangoose, the new attack was formed in a perfect ball of energy in front of him.

Just as Wildfire tried to strike through with a Close Combat combined with her Focus Blast, Rey used this ball of energy and exploded it right in front of them, causing a large pool of their past attacks combined with Rey's Thunder and dark energies into one large explosion of power. It prevented any of Wildfire's attacks to reach him, while also flinging Zane, Guardia and the other Gold Tribe members back, not only from the force of the attack, but by the power. Zane could feel the enormous stinging pain as the attack hit him, sending him crashing to the other side of the room. Through all of the power unleashed, he heard Rey plainly announce this attack. "Dark Doom," Which he noticed looked similar in design to a Dark Pulse, but which covered a much larger area, and the damage of which was far surpassing any other attack he had ever seen.

__________________

A Legend once told me that roleplaying is about bringing people together and celebrating creative vision.
Paired with the ArtsyInfinite and the Spectacular Shak

Not a single dent! Even after all of that, this guy wasn't phased at all! Snype was gonna lead up with Foul Play but he wasn't sure what would happen if he got close to him. Still, he didn't have much to lose at this point. Snype froze up as Rey prepared his next attack A huge explosion that would be wide enough to hit Snype and Levena and send them flying right against the wall, leaving a huge mark from the impact. "Gyaah!" Sype cried out in pain. He landed on top of Levina and rubbed his own arm. He had no idea how he was going to get close to this guy with a move like that. Detect couldn't be used multiple times as he pleased. It caused too much strain to enhance his senses like that.

Snype decided to keep his distance for now and observe Rey's movements and how he attacked... He'd be endangering the others but he wanted to know just what he was fighting and look for possible weak points or safe spots to attack from. Just running up to him recklessly would get everyone killed. He ordered Levina to stay behind too and be ready to attack. Snype got onto Levina's back again and began to scout the area.

Destruction covered the area after Rey's attack. The sturdy, magnificence of the top level of the Citadel had been partially blown off, with a large hole present in the center of the room where the Wielder's attack had gone off. Rubble littered the area, with holes, cracks and broken surfaces covering anything that still was standing. Zane was forced back to the far end of the room, apparently along with most of the others. He saw Guardia and Dryad struggling to rise up beside him, with Sword and Shield a bit further off in front doing the same. Snype and Levina seemed to be struggling with a similar fate as well. Zane expected the Wielder to be a tough opponent, but the amount of force and power Rey was unleashing on them was unnatural. A prolonged fight would end poorly, and charging in too recklessly and suddenly would only result in a quick death. Either way, if they didn't proceed cautiously, it would be the end of them.

Snype and Levina seemed to be thinking somewhat on similar lines, staying back for the moment to decide how to attack next. Zane seemed to struggle to decide as well. He doubted Rey would give them any time to decide. Looking around at the others, he quickly tried to determine the best chance they would have. His eyes met with Dryad and Wildfire, and he spoke quickly as Rey was already on approach.

"I don't think there's anyway to overpower him conventionally. We have to hit him heavily to have a chance. Dryad, Wildfire, you two have attacks that can build up," He began to say to them, remember Dryad's Hyper Beam and Wildfire's Life Flames. "We'll give you some time. You try to get them ready! The rest of us, distract Rey!" He called out, and charged forward. Dryad nodded her head, standing shakily to prepare.

The trio of Sword and Shield, Guardia and Zane all charged forward in a Gold Tribe attacking formation, Zane in front with the two others at his side like a spear, charging the Zangoose with dark energy fluttering around him. Both and Guardia and Zane used a set of Sword Dances to prepare themselves, while Sword and Shield elected to use a Belly Drum. They had fully abandoned safety and security for an all-out offensive. Rey awaited.

Zane struck forward first, leaping into the air to try an Aerial Ace right on top of him. The precision and focus of the Swords Dance boosted the attack, causing his sharp blade arms to be bolstered as they were brought down upon the Zangoose. Guardia meanwhile struck by ground with a Crush Claw, which was also beefed up. Rey held out one arm and collided his claws with Zane's blade arm, and slashed his second hand upon Guardia's claws. The two Gold Tribe members collided with their former leader at roughly the same time, but didn't make a dent into his defense despite their coordinated attack. Zane tried to push his arms down, as Guardia tried to push forward, but Rey held firmly.

Luckily, they seemed to have preoccupied him enough for Sword and Shield to run at him soon after, powering up his own Wild Charge, attempting to make contact with him. This time, with both of his arms occupied, Rey relied on the chaotic energy flowing around to block, gathering at the front of his body and forming into a shield-like appearance. Sword and Shield wasn't deterred, charging forward without stopping right at the barrier in an attempt to break through and get to Rey. However, at the last moment, as if a reaction from him, the part of the chaos shield closest to Zane seemed to detract from his presence, weakening the top portion of it. Rey took notice immediately, and for a moment, was bewildered by it. However, he quickly put two and two together, and glared at Zane.

"You!" He cried out in realization. He didn't have a chance to say much beyond that, as Sword and Shield collided into the barrier, the bolts and electric charges of his charge bursting through the weakened shield and smashing it apart. He kept going right toward Rey, who tried to react by pushing off both Zane and Guardia away so that he could cover himself up for the charging Snorlax. Zane was kicked off a few meters into the air, and Guardia slid back a few feet from Rey's push off, giving him a chance to guard himself as Sword and Shield roared and smashed into him. Bolts of electricity bounced off the Wielder, but he kept his guard up, holding off the substantially larger Snorlax. Still, the larger Pokemon managed to force the Zangoose back finally with his attack to a few paces, but not much beyond that.

Zane, Guardia, and Sword and Shield all panted as they tried to recover from the collision with Rey, who it still seemed as though they didn't make much of a dent in.

"So you're the reason..." Rey began, looking over Zane. "I should have guessed from the gold skin. Well, at least I know the target I need to hit to finish this."

Before Zane had a chance to reply, or even prepare for another attack, Rey had already decided to unleash his own. Lifting both of his hands up, he targeted Zane, but in essence had prepared enough energy to aim for all three Gold Tribe members, and fired a powerful, large dark Hyper Beam, vaguely resembling the one that Auron had been firing at them in his own bout on the first floor. Wide eyed, he quickly tried to jump out of the way as the Hyper Beam burned through the floor on its path to them, annihilating anything solid along the way. The three only barely dodged the power blast, but the shockwave carried them along with the blast to the far end of the room once more, even the large Snorlax being tossed away. Zane could feel his body burning and torching from the mere shockwave and after-affects of the missed beam. A hit from it would have been a death sentence.

But Rey was now occupied with only the three of them with his last attack, and the powerful move he unleashed, although wreaking havoc across the Citadel top floor, he was left partially open to the others in the room. Zane hoped they would take the opportunity to attack the recharging Zangoose, to hopefully make the first dent.

__________________

A Legend once told me that roleplaying is about bringing people together and celebrating creative vision.
Paired with the ArtsyInfinite and the Spectacular Shak

Ragnaros breathed heavily. He was wounded on his side and his wing, but he didn't remember how and didn't care. He flinched after ceasing to spit fire, and saw his attack had been for naught. Rey would easily block it, as he would the other attacks of his comrades; he truly was god-like and his power poured oil on Ragnaros's flaming rage. Nobody had the right to be this strong. He let out a roar of anguish mixed with fury, dizziness taking over for a second that would be his doom if he was closer to the enemy. His mind had gone blank for a second as he regained his footing, gathering his energy to try to understand what was going on around him.

"You!" Rey shouted at Vigil, sounding flustered, then the three members of the Gold Tribe went in for a focused attack. It didn't seem to be working, as per usual.
"So you're the reason..." Rey said, looking at Vigil. "I should have guessed from the gold skin. Well, at least I know the target I need to hit to finish this."

Aha, Ragnaros almost let out a humorless laugh, having noticed a bit of Rey's dark shield dissipate. Vigil seemed to be the reason. The golden skin... the Gold Crystal. Ragnaros was always fascinated by Vigil's unusual skin. Perhaps there was more to it than color. The Salamence had to launch himself from the ground to avoid the flying rocks and prepare his own attack.

"Vigil," he roared, "stay alive! That nobody thinks you're still worth something... make it count!" Then the Citadel flashed bright blue as Ragnaros burst into flames, becoming a massive fireball of dragonfire. He roared again, hurling himself at Rey while he was open.

The explosion flung Daricka away from Rey, a gasp escaping her lips as the shock traveled through her body. She landed far down the hallway, hitting the ground with a bone-crunching thud. She rose with a groan and wince, blinking stars from her eyes as pain lanced through her side; if she hadn't already broken something throughout the course of her earlier fights, then she most definitely had now.

"I don't think there's anyway to overpower him conventionally. We have to hit him heavily to have a chance. Dryad, Wildfire, you two have attacks that can build up," she heard Vigil saying. "We'll give you some time. You try to get them ready! The rest of us, distract Rey!"

Locking her legs wide apart to keep herself upright, Daricka held her hands out to either side. Gradually, energy and flames flooded into them, whirling into two blazing Focus Blasts. The spheres steadily grew larger and larger, Daricka not sparing any expense to add power to them. She didn't pay any mind to the three fighting the Wielder; she needed to focus all of her concentration on just preparing to attack. It wasn't until Rey's Hyper Beam pierced the air that she turned her attention back to the fight at hand. Now was the time!

Bringing both of the orbs in front of her, the two melded together, creating a single focus that was double the size of the originals. Rey now momentarily weakened, Daricka launched the mass of energy and flames toward the Zangoose.

As the Hyper Beam seared through the air, culminating in the creation of a large hole in the back of the Citadel, and continuing on outside of it, the others took this chance to react and attack and open Rey. Dryad, who had been preparing a Hyper Beam of her own, shot hers at the side of Rey as he was still finishing shooting his. Unable to react with his own attack, the dark energies which surrounded him activated and strengthened the barrier across his skin. The Hyper Beam clashed wildly with this dark barrier, trying to break through while the energy desperately tried to cling on to life, flickering wildly.

Ragnaros sought to add fuel to the fire, quite literally, as he threw his own body, covered in dragon flames, at an occupied Rey from the other side. Again, the chaotic barrier was preventing the flames from directly reaching him just yet, but they were getting agitated now. Wildfire, combining the two Focus Blasts into one, burning one, flung it at Rey as well, and the shield which surrounded his body couldn't maintain its energy any longer, and shattered at the three places the warriors fired their hits. He was hit directly by the Hyper Beam along his side, the flames of the dragon on his other, and the large Focus Blast on his front. The three attacks were damaging enough to not only make a dent in him, but also forced his feet backwards, before being taken off them and tossed to the back of the room and crashing into the wall, just left of the portal.

"Like every enemy they had fought," He began in his ailing tone, his voice barely able to reach the others, "...no matter the challenge...no matter the odds, we can overcome."

Movement came from the corner which Rey was thrown at. Zane slowly saw the figure of the former Gold Tribe leader forcing his way out of the rubble and back onto his feet. He had a few scrapes and scratches across his body now, but the silver crystal's energies still roamed across his form, though they appeared to lessen momentarily after the enormous punishment the Gold Tribe had delivered upon him.

He walked forward, positioning himself right in front of the portal, his original position right in the beginning of his fight. Once there, he closed his eyes, and breathed in deeply, and then exhaled. When his eyes opened, a slight flicker of light could be seen from them, even from their slight distance. "No..." He replied gravely. "No, you can't."

It happened almost instantaneously, Zane couldn't have any chance to react, nor could the others. Dark energy poured into him from the portal, at an alarmingly fast rate, and in a manner of seconds, it seemed he had gathered as much power as he had before, if not more. He sped across the Citadel floor, his speed like that of a bullet, reminiscing Zane of Sentry. Zane tried to shoot a Thunder Wave at him to slow him down. He banked to the left and avoided it. Guardia tried to hit him with a Thunder, which shot right past him as he did a quick evasion to avoid that. Sword and Shield summoned upon enough energy to erupt onto the ground, destroying and cracking the marble floor of the last level with an Earthquake. Yet Rey seemed to shoot around every part which was being cracked up, sneak past all of the holes and broken rubble, and glide over any rocks popping up in a surprise attack.

Before Zane knew it, he had maneuvered successfully around everything they had to throw at him, and came upon them. Zane tried to prepare himself, but he wasn't quick enough. The Wielder leaped into the air, and slammed down on the ground around the Gold Tribe, creating another Dark Doom, this time it reacted upon the impact with the Zangoose to the ground. Once again, the brilliant and frightening display of strength forced the Gold Tribe back, despite Guardia's attempt to counter it with her Thunder shield, which held on for only a few moments.

Zane fell backwards against the wall, but managed to keep himself up, long enough to see Rey heading back over to the closest Gold Tribe member, Dryad. He brought his legendary claw down upon the Lilligant with astonishing strength and unthinkable power. The dark energy combined with the ferocity of his own natural skills, and the Lilligant was slashed directly across her body, literally ripping her entire front off. A scream may have escaped her lips in those final moments of her life, but Zane couldn't hear it from the ringing in his ears, the blood tasting in his mouth, and the shock of seeing one of his sisters murdered right in front of him. He tried to scream her name out, but his nothing came out of his voice. He could only look on, trying to make his way close enough to held, as the life left her eyes.

Dryad the Lilligant fell to the ground.

The Wielder wasn't done there. Guardia rushed after her father in anger and anguish, trying to strike at him with a Crush Claw of her own. Rey held up his claws to block her own, effectively ending the conclusion of her attack, and preparing one of his own. He fired directly at her chest, a bolt of his dark Thunder attack, shooting right out of his arm and directly onto her, leaving the tips of his fingers at that single point, and passing toward the point of impact, before sending an excruciating shock throughout her body. She screamed from the pain, before her father launched out an even larger Thunder from his hand, which propelled her away from him as if she had never meant anything to him. She was knocked to the very end of the room, her back to the wall, before she too closed her eyes.

Guardia the Zangoose fell to the ground.

Zane felt the tears well up in his eyes. He dragged his body at Rey, but he had already chosen his next victim, and in his weakened state, he couldn't make it fast enough as Sword and Shield roared in his own anger, meeting the Zangoose in the middle of their clashing point. He tried to harm the Wielder with a Smack Down, aiming right for his head, but the Zangoose managed to sidestep the attack with the help of the dark energy propelling his body. The attack missed, hitting the ground, and Rey proceeded to pummel the larger Snorlax with a Close Combat, each fist and claw hitting his body with bone-crunching power. In fact, Zane could hear the Snorlax's bones break even from his distance, even passed his enormous amount of weight. Sword and Shield attempted to cover up his body, placing his hands in front of him and try to defend himself, but Rey was far too fast, and far too accurate. He struck at him with a mechanical precision, seeming intent to beat him to death. Yet instead, he chose the quicker way. In the midst of the flying fists he launched, he powered one up more than the others, his claw being infused both with a Swords Dance and the silver crystal's energy. He struck forward, and drove his claw straight into the stomach of the Snorlax. Even as he stood behind him, Zane didn't need to guess. The blood flooding the ground in between them confirmed what he would have known. He had sent his claw straight into his body. Sword and Shield's knees shook below him, trying his best to hold his weight up. After a few more seconds, and tons of more blood leaving his body, they finally failed him, and he hurled forward, to which Rey stepped just enough to the side to avoid being having the Pokemon fall on top of him.

Sword and Shield the Snorlax fell to the ground.

Zane was speechless. He fell to his knees, his body unable to take the pain of his injuries, and his mind unable to take the pain of his loss. He was standing helplessly as all of the Gold Tribe, all of his friends, brothers and sisters, died around him. Rey leaped forward, sending a set of Shadow Balls toward Levina, Snype, Ragnaros and Wildfire, accompanied with the previous Dark Doom attack he had launched at them, twice. The Shadow balls were gargantuan in size, as if each one were its own super attack, and each one blazed toward them unnatural speeds. Believing that would be sufficient enough to stop them, he charged forward, approaching Zane.

Picking him off the ground by the neck, he held him up a few inches from the marble floor. Zane grasped his neck, trying to break free of the grip that Rey held him by, while also trying to fight back the tears which flowed from his eyes. "Some enemies were never meant to be fought," Rey said solemnly, holding him Zane up a bit higher and squeezing tighter around his neck. "The Gold Tribe performed admirably, better than anyone would have guessed. But in the end, even they couldn't stop the new world order which is to come."

He moved his free hand back, and prepared another, single, large Shadow Ball in his hands. The attack slowly gained power, and combined both with his own power and that fueled by the Dark One. "The World of the Dark One." He began to bring his hand forward, and prepared to launch his attack upon the golden Bisharp.

"This...is the way the world ends."

__________________

A Legend once told me that roleplaying is about bringing people together and celebrating creative vision.
Paired with the ArtsyInfinite and the Spectacular Shak

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